es and new experiences,
which lack is to be deplored and openly mourned. Many years ago, in
Mexico, when I first entered the vampire zone, I was apprised of the
fact by the clotted blood on my horse's neck in the early morning. In
actually seeing this evidence, I experienced the diverse emotions of
the discoverer, although as a matter of fact I had discovered nothing
more than the verification of a scientific commonplace. It so happened
that I had read, at one time, many conflicting statements of the
workings of this aerial leech; therefore, finding myself in his native
habitat, I went to all sorts of trouble to become a victim to his
sorceries. The great toe is the favorite and stereotyped point of
attack, we are told; so, in my hammock, my great toes were
conscientiously exposed night after night, but not until a decade
later was my curiosity satisfied.

I presume that this was a matter of ill luck, rather than a personal
matter between the vampire and me. Therefore, as a direct result of
this and like experiences, I have learned to make proper allowances
for the whims of the Fates. I have learned that it is their pleasure
to deluge me with rainstorms at unpropitious moments, also to send me,
with my hammock, to eminently desirable countries, which, however, are
barren of trees and scourged of every respectable shrub. That the
showers may not find me unprepared, I pack with my hamaca an extra
length of rope, to be stretched taut from foot-post to head-post, that
a tarpaulin or canvas may be slung over it. When a treeless country is
presented to me in prospect, I have two stout stakes prepared, and I
do not move forward without them.

It is a wonderful thing to see an experienced hammocker take his
stakes, first one, then the other, and plunge them into the ground
three or four times, measuring at one glance the exact distance and
angle, and securing magically that mysterious "give" so essential to
well-being and comfort. Any one can sink them like fence-posts, so
that they stand deep and rigid, a reproach and an accusation; but it
requires a particular skill to judge by the pull whether or not they
will hold through the night and at the same time yield with gentle and
supple swing to the least movement of the sleeper. A Carib knows,
instantly, worthy and unworthy ground. I have seen an Indian sink his
hamaca posts into sand with one swift, concentrated motion,
mathematical in its precision and surety, so that he mig