The Forest Exiles: The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

  THE VAMPIRE.

  Leon's head was close to that of the sleeper, whose sweet breath hefelt, and whose little bosom rose and fell in gentle undulation. Hescanned the inside of the hammock from head to foot. He gazed anxiouslyinto every fold of the cover. Not an object could he see that shouldnot have been there--no terrible creature--no serpent--for it was thislast that was in his mind. But something must have been there. Whatcould have caused the stream of blood, that now being closer he couldmore plainly see trickling over the soft blue veins? Some creature musthave done it!

  "Oh! if it be the small viper," thought he, "or the coral snake, or thedeadly macaurel! If these--"

  His thoughts at this moment were interrupted. A light flapping of wingssounded in his ear--so light, that it appeared to be made by the softpinions of the owl, or some nocturnal bird. It was not by the wings ofa bird that that sound was produced, but by the wings of a hideouscreature. Leon was conscious, from the continued flapping, thatsomething was playing through the air, and that it occasionallyapproached close to his head. He gazed upward and around him, and atlength he could distinguish a dark form passing between him and thelight; but it glided into the darkness again, and he could see it nomore. Was it a bird? It looked like one--it might have been an owl--itwas full as large as one; but yet, from the glance he had had of it, itappeared to be black or very dark, and he had never heard of owls ofthat colour. Moreover, it had not the look nor flight of an owl. Wasit a bird at all? or whatever it was, was it the cause of the blood?This did not appear likely to Leon, who still had his thoughts bent uponthe snakes.

  While he was revolving these questions in his mind, he again turned andlooked toward the foot of the hammock. The sight caused him a thrill ofhorror. There was the hideous creature, which he had just seen, rightover the bleeding foot. It was not perched, but suspended in the air onits moving wings, with its long snout protruded forward and pressedagainst the toe of the sleeper! Its sharp white teeth were visible inboth jaws, and its small vicious eyes glistened under the light of thefires. The red hair covering its body and large membranous wings addedto the hideousness of its aspect, and a more hideous creature could nothave been conceived. _It was the vampire_,--the blood-sucking_phyllostoma_!

  A short cry escaped from the lips of Leon. It was not a cry of pain,but the contrary. The sight of the great bat, hideous as the creaturewas, relieved him. He had all along been under the painful impressionthat some venomous serpent had caused the blood to flow, and now he hadno farther fear on that score. He knew that there was no poison in thewound inflicted by the phyllostoma--only the loss of a little blood; andthis quieted his anxieties at once. He resolved, however, to punish theintruder; and not caring to rouse the camp by firing, he stole a littlecloser, and aimed a blow with the butt of his pistol. The blow was wellaimed, and brought the bat to the ground, but its shrill screechingawoke everybody, and in a few moments the camp was in completeconfusion. The sight of the blood on the foot of the little Leona quiteterrified Dona Isidora and the rest; but when the cause was explained,all felt reassured and thankful that the thing was no worse. The littlefoot was bound up in a rag; and although, for two or three days after,it was not without pain, yet no bad effects came of it.

  The "blood-sucking" bats do not cause death either to man, or any otheranimal, by a single attack. All the blood they can draw out amounts toonly a few ounces, although after their departure, the blood continuesto run from the open wound. It is by repeating their attacks nightafter night that the strength of an animal becomes exhausted, and itdies from sheer loss of blood and consequent faintness. With animalsthis is far from being a rare occurrence. Hundreds of horses and cattleare killed every year in the South American pastures. These creaturessuffer, perhaps, without knowing from what cause, for the phyllostomaperforms its cupping operation without causing the least pain--at allevents the sleeper is very rarely awakened by it. It is easy tounderstand how it sucks the blood of its victim, for its snout and theleafy appendage around its mouth--from whence it derives the name"phyllostoma"--are admirably adapted to that end. But how does it makethe puncture to "let" the blood? That is as yet a mystery amongnaturalists, as it also is among the people who are habitually itsvictims. Even Guapo could not explain the process. The large teeth--ofwhich it has got quite a mouthful--seem altogether unfitted to make ahole such as is found where the phyllostoma has been at work. Theirbite, moreover, would awake the soundest sleeper. Besides these, it hasneither fangs, nor sting, nor proboscis, that would serve the purpose.How then does it reach the blood? Many theories have been offered; someassert that it rubs the skin with its snout until it brings it tobleeding: others say that it sets the sharp point of one of its largetusks against the part, and then by plying its wings wheels round andround, as upon a pivot, until the point has penetrated--that during thisoperation the motion of the wings fans and cools the sleeping victim, sothat no pain is felt. It may be a long while before this curiousquestion is solved, on account of the difficulty of observing a creaturewhose habits are nocturnal, and most of whose deeds are "done in thedark."

  People have denied the existence of such a creature as the blood-suckingbat--even naturalists have gone so far. They can allege no bettergrounds for their incredulity than that the thing has an air of thefabulous and horrible about it. But this is not philosophy.Incredulity is the characteristic of the half-educated. It may becarried too far, and the fables of the vulgar have often a stratum oftruth at the bottom. There is one thing that is almost intolerable, andthat is the conceit of the "closet-naturalist," who sneers at everythingas untrue that seems to show the least _design_ on the part of the brutecreation--who denies everything that appears at all singular orfanciful, and simply because it appears so. With the truthfulobservations that have been made upon the curious domestic economy ofsuch little creatures as bees, and wasps, and ants, we ought to becautious how we reject statements about the habits of other animals,however strange they may appear.

  Who doubts that a mosquito will perch itself upon the skin of a humanbeing, pierce it with his proboscis, and suck away until it is gorgedwith blood? Why does it appear strange that a bat should do the same?

  Now your closet-naturalist will believe that the bat _does_ suck theblood of cattle and horses, but denies that it will attack man! This issheer nonsense. What difference to the vampire, whether its victim be abiped or quadruped? Is it fear of the former that would prevent it fromattacking him? Perhaps it may never have seen a human being before:besides, it attacks its victim while asleep, and is rarely ever caughtor punished in the act. Where these creatures are much hunted orpersecuted by man, they may learn to fear him, and their original habitsmay become changed, but that is quite another thing. As nature hasformed them, the blood-sucking bats will make their attackindifferently, either upon man or large quadrupeds. There are athousand proofs to be had in all the tropical regions of America. Everyyear animals are killed by the _phyllostoma hastatum_, not in hundreds,but in thousands. It is recorded that on one extensive cattle-farmseveral hundred head were killed in the short period of six months bythe bats; and the vaqueros, who received a bounty upon every bat theyshould capture, in one year succeeded in destroying the enormous numberof _seven thousand_! Indeed, "bat-hunting" is followed by some as aprofession, so eager are the owners of the cattle-farms to get rid ofthese pests.

  Many tribes of Indians and travellers suffer great annoyance from thevampire-bats. Some persons never go to sleep without coveringthemselves with blankets, although the heat be ever so oppressive. Anypart left naked will be attacked by the phyllostoma, but they seem tohave a preference for the tip of the great toe--perhaps because theyhave found that part more habitually exposed. Sometimes one sleeper is"cupped" by them, while another will not be molested; and this, I mayobserve, is true also of the mosquitoes. There may be some differenceas to the state of the blood of two individuals, that leads to thisfastidiou
s preference. Some are far more subject to their attack thanothers--so much so that they require to adopt every precaution to savethemselves from being bled to death. Cayenne pepper rubbed over theskin is used to keep them off, and also to cure the wound they havemade; but even this sometimes proves ineffective.

  Of course there are many species of bats in South America besides thevampire; in fact, there is no class of mammalia more numerous in generaand species, and no part of the world where greater numbers are foundthan in the tropical regions of America. Some are insect-eaters, whileothers live entirely on vegetable substances; but all have the sameunsightly and repulsive appearance. The odour of some kinds isextremely fetid and disagreeable. Notwithstanding this, they are eatenby many tribes of Indians, and even the French Creoles of Guiana havetheir "bat-soup," which they relish highly. The proverb "_De gustibusnon disputandum est_" seems to be true for all time. The SpanishAmericans have it in the phrase "_Cada uno a su gusto;" "Chacun a songout_," say the French; and on hearing these tales about "ant-paste,"and "roast monkey," and "armadillo done in the shell," and "bat-soup,"you, boy reader, will not fail to exclaim "Every one to his liking."

  The vampire appeared to be to Guapo's liking. It was now his turn tokeep watch, and as the rest of them got into their hammocks, and layawake for a while, they saw him take up the bat, spit it upon a forkedstick, and commence broiling it over the fire. Of course _he ate it_!

  When morning came, and they had got up, what was their astonishment tosee no less than fourteen bats lying side by side! They were dead, ofcourse: Guapo had killed them all during his watch. They had appearedat one period of the night in alarming numbers, and Guapo had donebattle manfully without awaking anybody.

  Another curious tableau came under their notice shortly after. Just asthey were about to embark, a singular-looking tree was observed growingnear the bank of the river. At first they thought the tree was coveredwith birds'-nests, or pieces of some kind of moss. Indeed, it lookedmore like a tree hung over with rags than anything else. Curiosity ledthem to approach it. What was their astonishment to find that thenests, moss, or rags, were neither more nor less than a vast assemblageof bats suspended, and asleep! They were hanging in all possiblepositions; some with their heads down, some by the claws upon eitherwing, and some by both, while a great many had merely hooked over thebranch the little horny curvature of their tails. Some hung down alongthe trunk, suspended by a crack in the bark, while others were far outupon the branches.

  It was certainly the oddest "roost" that any of the party (Guapo,perhaps, excepted) had ever witnessed; and, after gazing at it for sometime, they turned away without disturbing the sleepers, and getting onboard once more, floated adown the stream swiftly and silently.