occasional tapir or peccary from the woods, and otters and fish from
the streams, had attracted the shots of the party, but merely as
welcome additions to their game-bags, not as food for their fears.
To-night, however, the veritable bugbear of the tropical forest paid
them a visit, and left a real souvenir of his presence. As the Indian
servants stretched themselves out in slumber under the bright stars
and in the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat of the vampire
species, attracted by the emanations of their bodies, came sailing
over them, and emboldened by the silence reigning everywhere, selected
a victim for attack. Hovering over the fellow's exposed foot, he bit
the great toe, and fanning his prey in the traditional yet inevitable
manner by the natural movement of his wings, he gorged himself with
blood without disturbing the mozo. The latter, on awakening in the
morning, observed a slight swelling in the perforated part, and on
examination discovered a round hole large enough to admit a pea.
Without rising, the man summoned his companions, who formed a group
around him for the purpose of furnishing a certain natural remedy in
the shape of a secretion which each one drew out of his ears. With
this the patient made himself a plaster for his wound, and appeared to
think but little of it. Questioned as to his sensations by the white
travelers, who found themselves a good deal more disturbed with the
idea of the vampire than they had been by any indications of tigers or
wild-boars, the fellow explained that he had felt no sensation, unless
it might have been an agreeable coolness of his sand-baked feet.
The incident seemed so disagreeable and so likely of recurrence
that Colonel Perez ever afterward slept with his feet rolled up in a
variety of fantastic draperies, while Mr. Marcoy for several nights
retained his boots.

[Illustration: "PEPE GARCIA, WHO MARCHED AHEAD, ANNOUNCED THE PRINT OF