164 
WANDERINGS IN 
THIRD 
Jfll'RNKY. 
Species 
of large 
red Ant. 
surlily; u why, the vampires have been sucking me 
to death.” As soon as there was light enough, I 
went to his hammock, and saw it much stained with 
blood. “ There,” said he, thrusting his foot out of 
the hammock, “see how these infernal imps have 
been drawing my life’s blood.” On examining his 
foot, I found the vampire had tapped his great toe : 
there was a wound somewhat less than that made 
by a leech; the blood was still oozing from it; I 
conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve 
ounces of blood. Whilst examining it, I think I 
put him into a worse humour by remarking, that an 
European surgeon would not have been so generous 
as to have blooded him without making a charge. 
He looked up in my face, but did not say a word : 
I saw he was of opinion that I had better have 
spared this piece of ill-timed levity. 
It was not the last punishment of this good gentle¬ 
man in the river Paumaron. The next night he 
was doomed to undergo a kind of ordeal unknown in 
Europe. There is a species of large red ant in Gui¬ 
ana, sometimes called Ranger, sometimes Coushie. 
These ants march in millions through the country, 
in compact order, like a regiment of soldiers ; they 
eat up every insect in their march; and if a house 
obstruct their route, they do not turn out of the way, 
but go quite through it. Though they sting cruelly 
when molested, the planter is not sorry to see them 
in his house ; for it is but a passing visit, and they 
destroy every kind of insect vermin that had taken 
shelter under his roof. 
Now, in the British plantations of Guiana, as well 
