270 
Clouds of Blood-Suckers. 
however, our troubles began anew, because regular clouds of small' 
Siiuulia ( Griebel it ) which the Indians called Mapire moved here and 
there over the water, and like harpies fell upon us and stung our hands 
and faces in the most wretched fashion. Every single bite is usually 
visible for from ten to twelve days and forms a small blood-spot the size 
of a pin’s head. Äs their proboscis is extremely short, even the thinnest 
clothing frustrates their criminal intentions, on which account it was only 
necessary to protect our face and hands. The Indians, however, what 
with their trouserless costumes, were all the more to be pitied, for it was 
upon them that these insects everywhere found space to still their greed 
for blood unhindered, and it was not two days that we had been plough- 
ing the waters of the Rupununi before their whole bodies, but particularly 
their backs, were bitten and badly swollen. Tn spite of the pitiful 
appearance presented by these poor wretches, there was nevertheless 
something uncommonly ridiculous when one of them hit another on the 
back with the flat of the paddle or of the hand as soon as a crowd of 
blood-suckers had collected on the man in front. Without turning 
round, each man was grateful for the smack he got from the one behind, 
because he knew what it was meant for. The slightest current of air 
springing un drove the persecuting wretches awav for a second, but as 
soon ns if died down again we saw arid felt them around us with 
redoubled sanguinary dispositions. To afford the poor naked Indians at 
least some little relief, we searched our certainly very plain wardrobe and 
supplied them with shirts. The insects were likewise equally unpleasant 
owing to their continually creeping and flying into the mouth, nose and 
eyes. 
778. T have never succeeded in finding again any river that possessed 
so manv inland bays {Buchten') as the Rupununi. These kirahaghs* as 
the Indians call them, are for the most part fairly narrow at their point 
of junction with the stream, and only widen out some way inland into 
considerable basins, the play- and spawning-grounds of a number of fish, 
kaimans, and water-fowl, which latter either fly around such bights in 
large swarms or remain perched on the trees surrounding them. Almost 
all families and genera of swamp and water fowl were represented here : 
Ardea, Platnlca, Cancroma, Carbo, Plotus , Alcedo, Rhynchops, Numenius, 
Larus and innumerable chains of duck bestirred themselves round about 
over and on the water or, screaming wildly, darted through the air. The 
kaimans, only a single specimen of which we had caught sight of in the 
Essequibo, were seen in the Rupununi, but particularly in large numbers 
in the kirahaghs where they swim around by day looking like floating 
tree-trunks. How and by what means these inland bays have arisen we 
have not exactly been able to find out. Were their openings directed 
against the stream, one would not for a moment have any doubt over 
the cause of their origin, but these are almost universally directed down 
* The present-day local Indians do not apparently recognise them under this name 
the Wapisiänas speak of them as Rarsia. and the Macusis as Kuba. (Ed.) 
