“Be thou a Spirit of health or goblin damn’d,
Bring with thee airs of Heav’n or blasts from Hell!”
The mystery however was, that I had been bitten by the vampire or spectre of Guiana, which is also called the flying-dog of New Spain, and by the Spaniards perro-volador; this is no other than a bat of a monstrous size, that sucks the blood from men and cattle when they are fast asleep, even sometimes till they die; and as the manner in which they proceed is truly wonderful, I shall endeavour to give a distinct account of it.—Knowing by instinct that the person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet, where while the creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small indeed that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently [[143]]not painful; yet through this orifice he continues to suck the blood, until he is obliged to disgorge. He then begins again, and thus continues sucking and disgorging till he is scarcely able to fly, and the sufferer has often been known to sleep from time into eternity. Cattle they generally bite in the ear, but always in such places where the blood flows spontaneously, perhaps in an artery—but this is entering rather on the province of the medical faculty. Having applied tobacco-ashes as the best remedy, and washed the gore from myself and from my hammock, I observed several small heaps of congealed blood all round the place where I had lain, upon the ground: upon examining which, the surgeon judged that I had lost at least twelve or fourteen ounces during the night.
A. Smith Sculpt.
The Murine Oppossum of Terra-Firma.
The Vampire or Spectre of Guiana.
London, Published Decr. 1st, 1791, by J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church Yard.
As I have since had an opportunity of killing one of these bats, I cut off his head, which I here present to the reader in its natural size, and as a great curiosity, with the whole figure flying above it on a smaller scale. Having measured this creature, I found it to be between the tips of the wings thirty-two inches and a half; it is said that some are above three feet, though nothing like in size to the bats of Madagascar. The colour was a dark brown, nearly black, but lighter under the belly. Its aspect was truly hideous upon the whole, but particularly the head, which has an erect shining membrane above the nose, terminating in a shrivelled point: the ears are long, rounded, and transparent: the cutting teeth were four above and six below. I saw no tail, but a skin, in [[144]]the middle of which was a tendon. It had four toes on each wing, with sharp nails divided like the web-foot of a duck[2]; and on the extremity of each pinion, where the toes are joined, was a nail or claw to assist it in crawling, like those of its hinder feet, by which it hangs suspended when asleep to trees, rocks, roofs, &c.
One of the marines having this morning taken a murine or mouse oppossum, I shall also take the opportunity of describing it, and present it to the reader as I designed it from the life. This animal differs widely in some particulars from the description of the Count de Buffon:—For instance, it was much swifter than any of the oppossums that he speaks of, and had the whole tail covered over with hair instead of scales, to the best of my remembrance; if, however, my sight deceived me, I am not the only erroneous writer on the subject of this animal. Linnæus, Seba, and Mr. Vormeer, with the last of whom I am acquainted, consider it as common to both the old and new continent; whereas all its species are most assuredly inhabitants of America only. Linnæus is also mistaken when he asserts, that all bats have four cutting teeth in each jaw.—(See Buffon, Vol. V. page 282.)