272 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
Its teeth. 
and the blood was then running from it apace. His 
hammock was so defiled and stained with clotted 
blood, that he was obliged to beg an old black 
woman to wash it. As she was taking it down to 
the river side, she spread it out before me, and shook 
her head. I remarked, that I supposed her own 
toe was too old and tough to invite the Vampire- 
doctor to get his supper out of it; and she answered, 
with a grin, that doctors generally preferred young 
people. 
Nobody has yet been able to inform me how it is 
that the vampire manages to draw such a large 
quantity of blood, generally from the toe, and the 
patient, all the time, remains in a profound sleep. 
I have never heard of an instance of a man waking 
under the operation. On the contrary, he continues 
in a sound sleep, and at the time of rising, his eyes 
first inform him, that there has been a thirsty thief 
on his toe. 
The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, and not 
unlike those of a rat. If it be that he inflicts the 
wound with his teeth, (and he seems to have no 
other instruments,) one would suppose that the 
acuteness of the pain would cause the person who is 
sucked, to awake. We are in darkness in this mat¬ 
ter ; and I know of no means by which one might 
be enabled to throw light upon it. It is to be hoped 
that some future wanderer through the w r ilds of 
Guiana, v T ill be more fortunate than I have been, 
and catch this nocturnal depredator in the fact. I 
have once before mentioned that I killed a vampire 
