Lippincotts Magazine, February 1873 | Page 4

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 A SOUTH AMERICAN TIGER."--P.
132.]
The path along the river-sands would have been voluntarily followed
by all the more irresponsible portion of the party, notwithstanding the
blinding heats, on account of its smoother footing. The cascarilleros,
however, objected that its tufts of canes and passifloras offered no
promise for their researches. A compromise was effected. The porters,
under the command of Juan of Aragon, were allowed to follow the
shore, and were armed with a supply of fish-hooks to induce them to
add from time to time to the alarmingly diminished supply of
provisions. The grandees of the party followed the Bolivians, whose
specialty entitled them to control practically the direction of the route,
and plunged into the woods to botanize, to explore and to search for
game. A system of conversation by means of shouts and pistol-shots
was established between the two divisions. The next night proved the
wisdom of this bifurcation. The united booty of earth, air and water,
under the form of a squirrel, a pair of toucans and a variety of fish,
afforded a meal which the porters described as comida opipara or a
sumptuous festival. Lulled and comforted by the sensation which a
contented stomach wafts toward the brain, the explorers, after washing
their hands and rinsing their mouths at the riverside, betook themselves
to a cheerful repose _sub jove_, the locality offering no reeds of the

articulated species with which to construct a shelter.
The party, then, betook themselves to slumber with unusual
contentment, repeating the splendid supper in their dreams, with the
addition of every famous wine that Oporto and Rheims could dispense,
when they were awakened by a sudden and terrible storm. A
waterspout stooped over the forest and sucked up a mass of crackling
branches. The camp-fire hissed and went out in a fume of smoke. A
continuity of thunder, far off at first, but approaching nearer and nearer,
kept up a constant and increasing fusillade, to whose reports was soon
added the voice of the Cconi, lashed in its bed and bellowing like the
sea. The surprising tumult went on in a crescendo. The
hardly-interrupted charges of the lightning gave to the eye a strange
vision of flying woods and soaring branches. Startled, trembling and
sitting bolt upright, the adventurers asked if their last hour were come.
The rain undertook to answer in spinning down upon their heads drops
that were like bullets, and which for some time were taken for hail.
Fearing to be maimed or blinded as they sat, the party crowded together,
placing themselves back to back; and, unable to lay their heads under
their wings like the birds, sheltered them upon their knees under the
protection of their crossed arms. The fearful deluge of heated shot
lasted until morning. Then, as if in laughter, the sun came radiantly out,
the landscape readjusted its disheveled beauties, and the ground,
covered with boughs distributed by the whirlwind, greedily drank in the
waters from heaven. Soon there remained nothing of the memorable
tempest but the diamonds falling in measured cadence from the
refreshed and stiffened leaves.
Up to sunrise the unfortunates rested stoically silent, their knees in their
mouths, and receiving the visitation like a group of statuary. The rain
ceasing with the same promptitude with which it had risen, they raised
their heads and looked each other in the face, like the enemies over the
fire in Byron's Dream. Each countenance was blue, and decorated with
long flat locks of adhesive