Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-11-30

oicIullcnuO a COhpuuy VI HOlu Seek
ers, white men, who drove the natives
from their workings and took possess
sion of them. They were the first
white men who had ever been seen
there, and the Indians were afraid of
their guns; but eventually treachery
did the work OF courage, for, pretend
ing to be friendly, the natives sent
their women among the strangers,
and they taught them how to make
tucupi of the bread root, but did not
tell them how to distinguish between
the ripe and the unripe. So the
wretched white men made tucupi out
of the unripe fruit (Which brings on
fits like epilepsy, and when they
were lying about the camp helpless
the Indians attacked them and killed
them all.
All but three, These three they gave
to the vampire.
But what was the vampire? The "a
poros did not know. Very long ago."
said they, there were many vampires
IN Peru, but they were all swallowed
up in the year of the great earthquake,
when the Andes were lifted up, and
there was left behind only one, Arm
CHI who lived where the Amazon
joins the Maranon, and he would not
eat dead bodies-only live ones, from
which the blood would fow."
When sacrifice was made to ''the
| vampire" the victim was bound in a
canoe and taken down the river to a
point where there was kind of wind
| ing backwater, which had shelving
banks of Shiny mud, and ut the end
there was rock with cave init. And
here the canoe was left A very slow
current flowed through the tortu-
GUS creek, and anything thrown into
the water ultimately reached the cave.
Some of the Indians had watched the
canoes drifting along, few yards only
in an hour, and turning round and
round as they drifted, and had seen
them reach the cave and disappear
within. And it had been wonder to
them, generation after generation,
that the cave was never filed up, for
all day long the current was flowing
into it, carrying with it the sluggish
flotsam of the river. So they said the
cave was the entrance to hell, and bot.
tomless.
And one day white man, profess
sor of that same university of Bierund
wurst, and mighty hunter of beetles
before the lord, who lived with the In
dians In friendship, went up the back
water, right up to the entrance, and
set afoat inside the cave little raft
heaped up with touchwood and knots
of the oil tree, which he set fire to
and he saw the raft go creeping along
all ablaze, for an hour or more, light
ing up the wet walls Of the cave as i
went on either side. And then it wal
put out.
1t did not Ego" out suddenly, as if i
had upset or had foated over the edg,
of waterfall, but just as If it hat
been beaten out.
For the burning fragments wer
flung to one side and the other, ant
the pieces, still alight, giowed for
long time on the lodges and points o
rock where they fell, and the cave wa
filed with the sound of sudden vim
and the echoes of the noise of grea
wings Tapping.
And at last, one day, the professo
went into the cave himself
II took" he wrote, "a large canoe
and from the bows built out brazie
| nf IL hoAyNc nd hah IND
set gold-washing tin dish for a re
hector and loaded the canoe wit
roots of the resin tree, and oil WOO
and yams and dried meat. And too
spears with me, some tipped with tn
woorali poison, that numbs, but doe
not kill. And lit my fire, and wit
:. my pole l guided my canoe very cal
|, tiously through the tunnel, and b,
fore long it widened out, and creepin
. along one wall 1 suddenly becam
aware of a moving of something O
the opposite side.
$50 turned the light fair upon i
= and there, upon kind of ledge, sat
beast with head like large era
= dog. Its eyes were as large as cow
. what its shape was could not SCI
q But as looked l began gradually
6 make out two huge batlike wings, an
these were spread out to their utmos
as if the beast were on tiptoe az
q ready to fly. And SO it was. For jul
e as had realized that beheld befol
. me some great bat-reptile OF kin
unknown to science, except as pred
A luvian, and the shock had thrille
h through me at the thought that w,
a actually in the presence of livir
: specimen of the so-called extinct fl
a ing lizards of the food, the thin
! launched itself upon the air, and Il
r next instant it was upon me.
[. "Clutching on to the canoe, it be,
@ with It's wings at the flame SO furious
l. that it was all could do to keep fro
If capsizing, and, taken by surprise,
was nearly stunned by the strengt
d and rapidity of the blows before a
d tempted to defend myself.
'By that time-scarcely half a mi
5; ute had elapsed-the brazier had bee
|, nearly emptied by the powerful brut
3 and the vampire, installing me, l
A. doubt, for victim of sacrifice, hi
b. taken hold of me- The next instant
IT had driven spear clean through h
lie body, and with prodigious tumult
wings, the thing loosed its claws fro
1t my clothes and dropped off into Il
V, stream.
" Gas quickly as possible rekindl,
d my light and now saw the arinct
u with wings outstretched upon the W
q ter, drifting down on the current.
10 followed it.
lg Hour after hour, with my reflect
or turned full upon that gray dogs he,
lie with cow-like eyes, / passed alol
d. down the dark and silent waterway.