sábado, 15 de octubre de 2022

EL VAMPIRO

Charles Waterton

“Anteriormente he comentado que deseaba tener la posibilidad de decir que el

vampiro me había succionado. Les di muchas oportunidades, pero siempre
fueron tímidos; y aunque recientemente succionaron muy fuertemente a un
joven indígena, mientras dormía en su hamaca, en el galpón contiguo al mío,
no querían tener nada que ver conmigo. Su dedo gordo del pie parecía ser
mucho más atractivo. Lo examiné minuciosamente mientras lo lavaba en el río
al amanecer. El “cirujano nocturno" le había hecho una herida, casi de forma
triangular, y la sangre salía rápidamente de ella. Su hamaca estaba tan sucia y
manchada de sangre coagulada, que se vio obligado a rogarle a una anciana
negra que se la lavara. Mientras ésta la bajaba a la orilla del río, la extendió
ante mí y sacudió la cabeza. Le comenté que suponía que el dedo del pie de
ella era demasiado viejo y duro como para tentar al doctor vampiro a extraer
una cena de él; y ella respondió, con una sonrisa, que los médicos
generalmente preferían a las jóvenes.”

“Todavía nadie ha podido informarme cómo es que el vampiro logra sacar

tanta sangre, generalmente del dedo del pie, mientras el paciente
permanece todo el tiempo en un sueño profundo. Nunca he oído hablar de
una persona que se despertara durante la operación. Por el contrario,
continúa en un profundo sueño, y al momento de levantarse, sus ojos son los
primeros en informarle que ha habido un ladrón sediento sobre el dedo de su
pie.”
“Los dientes del vampiro son muy afilados y no muy diferentes a los de la
rata. Si es que inflige las heridas con los dientes (y parece que no tiene otros
instrumentos), uno supondría que la agudeza del dolor haría despertar a la
persona succionada. Somos ignorantes en este tema (1); y no conozco ningún
medio por el cual se pueda arrojar luz sobre ello. Es de esperar que algún
futuro vagabundo de las selvas de Guyana, sea más afortunado que yo, y
atrape a este depredador nocturno in fraganti. Alguna vez mencioné que
maté a un vampiro que medía 81 cm de punta a punta de las alas extendidas;
pero otros, que he examinado desde entonces, han medido generalmente de
51 a 66 cm (2).”

….

“Hace algunos años fui al río Pomeroon con un caballero escocés, de nombre
Tarbet. Colgamos nuestras hamacas en el desván con techo de paja de la casa
de un hacendado. A la mañana siguiente escuché a este caballero
murmurando en su hamaca, y de vez en cuando soltando uno o dos insultos,
justo a la hora en que debería estar rezando sus oraciones matutinas. -«¿Qué
ocurre, señor?», dije en voz baja, «¿Pasa algo malo?» -«¿Qué pasa?»
respondió él malhumorado, -«Pasa que los vampiros me han estado
chupando a morir». Tan pronto como hubo suficiente luz, fui hasta su
hamaca y la vi muy manchada de sangre. «Aquí», dijo, sacando el pie de la
hamaca, «mira cómo estos diablillos infernales han estado sacándome la
sangre.»

“Al examinar su pie, descubrí que el vampiro le había mordido el dedo gordo
del pie: había una herida algo menor que la de una sanguijuela; la sangre
todavía manaba de ella; calculé que podría haber perdido 280 a 340 gramos
de sangre. Mientras lo examinaba, creo que lo puse de peor humor al
comentarle que un cirujano europeo no hubiera sido tan generoso como
para sangrarlo sin costo. Me miró a la cara, pero no dijo una palabra: me di
cuenta de que pensaba que mejor me hubiera ahorrado esa inoportuna
broma.”
Traducción y notas: Alex Mouchard

(1) El primer anestésico local conocido fue la cocaína, aislada en 1855 y

utilizada como tal desde 1885.

(2) Aquí Waterton se confunde de especie ya que el murciélago vampiro

(Desmodus rotundus) sólo mide de 20 a 30 cm de envergadura. Por ejemplo,
el murciélago espectral (Vampyrum spectrum) que es cazador pero no
hematófago, llega hasta 1 m de envergadura.

REFERENCIAS

Texto:

Waterton, Charles -1879- Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States and
the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, & 1824. London: Macmillan & Co.

Dibujo:

Shaw, George. 1800. General zoology, or Systematic natural history. v.1:pt.1-2. London, Printed
for G. Kearsley, 1800-1826.

Shaw, George. 1800. General zoology, or Systematic natural history. v.1:pt.1-2. London, Printed
for G. Kearsley, 1800-1826.

Griffith, Mrs., , engraver.

Heath, Charles, 1785-1848 , engraver.
Stephens, James Francis, 1792-1853
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The Vampire.

I have formerly remarked, that I wished to have it in my power to say, that I

had been sucked by the vampire.
I gave them many an opportunity, but they always fought shy ; and though
they now sucked a young man of the Indian breed very severely, as he was
sleeping in his hammock in the shed next to mine, they would have nothing to
do with me. His great toe seemed to have all the attractions. I examined it
minutely as he was bathing it in the river at daybreak. The midnight surgeon
had made a hole in it, almost of a triangular shape, and the blood was then
running from it apace. His hammock was so defiled and stained with clotted
blood, that he was obliged to beg an old black woman to wash it. As she was
taking it down to the river side, she spread it out before me, and shook her
head. I remarked, that I supposed her own toe was too old and tough to invite
the Vampire-doctor to get his supper out of it; and she answered, with a grin,
that doctors generally preferred young people.
Nobody has yet been able to inform me how it is that the vampire manages to
draw such a large quantity of blood, generally from the toe, and the patient, all
the time, remain in a profound sleep. I have never heard of an instance of a
man waking under the operation. On the contrary, he continues in a sound
sleep, and at the time of rising, his eyes first inform him that there has been a
thirsty thief on his toe.
The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, and not unlike those of the rat. If it be
that he inflicts the wounds with his teeth, (and he seems to have no other
instruments,) one would suppose that the acuteness of the pain would cause
the person who is sucked, to awake. We are in darkness in this matter ; and I
know of no means by which one might be enabled to throw light upon it.
It is to be hoped that some future wanderer through the wilds of Guiana, will
be more fortunate than I have been, and catch this nocturnal depredator in the
fact. I have once before mentioned that I killed a vampire which measured
thirty-two inches from wing to wing extended; but others, which I have since
examined, have generally been from twenty to twenty-six inches in dimension.
….
Some years ago I went to the river Paumaron with a Scotch gentleman, by name
Tarbet. We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter’s house. Next
morning I heard this gentleman muttering in his hammock, and now and then letting
fall an imprecation or two, just about the time he ought to have been saying his
morning prayers. “ What is the matter, Sir,” said I, softly ; “ is any thing amiss ? ” “
What’s the matter ? ” answered he, surlily: “why, the vampires have been sucking
me to death.” As soon as there was light enough, I went to his hammock, and saw it
much stained with blood. “ There,” said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock, “
see how these infernal imps have been drawing my life’s blood.”
On examiningh his foot, I found the vampire had tapped his great toe : there was a
wound somewhat less than that ade by a leech ; the blood was still oozing from it; I
conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of blood. Whilst
examining it, I think I put him into a worse humour by remarking, that an European
surgeon would not have been so generous as to have blooded him without making a
charge. He looked up in my face, but did not say a word: I saw he was of opinion
that I had better have spared this piece of ill-timed levity.

Waterton, Charles -1879- Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States and
the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, & 1824. London: Macmillan & Co.