Page 97 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

96 THIRD BOOK OF
specjes. I have never yet seen a bat om India with a membrane rising perpendicula y from the end of its nose; nor have I ever been able to learn that bats in India suck animals, though I have questioned many people on this subject. I could only nd two species of bats in Guiana with a membrane rising om the nose. Both these kinds suck animals and eat uit; while those bats without a membrane on the nose, seem to live entirely upon fruit and insects, but chie y on the latter.
2. A gentleman, by name Walcott, lived r up the river Demerara. While I was passing a day or two at his house, the vampires sucked his son, some of his wls, and his jack-ass, which was the only quadruped he had brought with him into the rest. The poor ass was doomed to be a prey to these san guinary imps of night; and I saw, by his sores and apparent debility, that he would soon sink under his a ictions. Although I was so long in Dutch Guiana, visited the Orinoco and Cayenne, ranged throu h part of the interior of Portuguese Guiana, still I could never nd out how the vampires actually draw the blood. I should not feel so morti ed at my total ilure in attempting the discovery, bad I not made such diligent search after the vampire, and examined his haunts.
3. Europeans may consjder as bulous the stories related of the vampire; but, r my own part, I must believe in its powers of sucking blood om living animals, as I have repeatedly seen both men and beasts that had been repeatedly sucked; and, more­ over, I have examined very minutely their bleeding wounds. Wish l of having it in my power to say
that I had been sucked by the vampire, and not