The Van Buren press., 1894-12-01

between the Amazon and the Mara
non, there came across to Pampas de
sacramento company Of gold seek.
ers, white men, who drove the natives
from their workings and took posses.
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 unripc. 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 Ia
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, 'Arin-
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
canoe and taken down the river to a
point where there was kind of wind
ing baclswater, 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
currept 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, a 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 1t had been a 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
fotsam 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 afioat 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 60 creeping along.
all ablaze, for an hour or more, light
ing up the wet walls Of the cave as it
went on either side. And then it was
put out.
1t did not "go' out suddenly, as II 1t
had upset or had foated over the edge
of a waterfall, but just as If it had
been beaten out.
For the burning fragments were
flung to one side and the other, and
the pieces, still alight, glowed for a
long time on the lodges and points OF
rock where they fell, and the cave was
filled with the sound of a sudden wind
and the echoes Of the noise of great
wings tapping
And at last, one day, tho professor
went into the cave himself.
II took" he wrote, "a large canoe,
and from the bows I built out brazier
of stout cask hoops, and behind it
set a goldwashing tin dish for re-
flector, and loaded the canoe with
roots of the resin tree, and oil wood
and yams and dried meat. And took
spears with me, some tipped with the
woorali poison, that numbs, but does
not kill. And lit my fire, and with
my pole guided my canoe very eau
tiously through the tunnel, and be-
fore long it widened out, and creeping
along one wall l suddenly became
aware Of moving of something or
the opposite side.
$50 turned the light fair upon IT.
and there, upon kind of a ledge, sat Q
beast with head like large gray
dog. Its eyes were as large rs cows
"What its shape was could not see
But as looked began gradually te
make out two huge bat.ike wings, nnd
these were spread out to their utmost
as If the beast were on tiptoe and
ready to fly. And SO 1t was. For just
as had realized that l beheld before
me some great bat.reptile OF a kind
unknown to science, except as a predi
luvian, and the shock had thrilled
through me at the thought that was
actually in the presence of living
specimen Of the so-called extinct fly.
ing lizards OF the flood, the thing
launched itself upon the air, and the
next instant it was upon me.
"Clutching on to the canoe, it beat
with it's wings at the flame SO furiously
that it was all could do to keep from
capsizing, and, taken by surprise,
was nearly stunned by the strength
and rapidity of the blows before at
tempted to defend myself.
"By that time-scarcely half min.
ute had elapsed-the brazier had been
nearly emptied by the powerful brute,
and the vampire, mistaking me, nc
doubt, for victim of sacrifice, had
taken hold of me. The next instant ]
had driven a spear clean through his
body, and with prodigious tumult OF
wings the thing loosed its claws from
my clothes and dropped off into the
stream.
"As quickly as possible rekindled
my light and now saw the arinchi,
with wings outstretched upon the wa
ter, drifting down on the current
followed it.
"Hour after hour, with my reflector
] turned full upon that gray dog's head