4 6 4- Natural History in foreign Cou7itries : — 



extremely short, and almost invisible, in the tapir), being con- 

 sidered as an omission in the first drawing, has been subse- 

 quently supplied by borrowing that of the most common 

 quadruped of the same size. The alleged habits of the me, 

 like its shape, are not very inconsistent with those of the tapir. 

 It is affirmed to gnaw iron, copper, and wood : the American 

 species also swallows wood and clay. D'Azara has seen an 

 individual gnaw a silver snuff-box; and it would, doubtlessly, 

 with equal readiness have taken between its teeth a piece of 

 iron or of copper ; and the tapir of India most likely possesses 

 similar propensities. The me is likewise affirmed to eat ser- 

 pents : although it has not been recorded that the tapir pos- 

 sesses the same appetite, it is, from its carnivorous and greedy 

 disposition, far from improbable; particularly when we con- 

 sider that the hog, with which the tapir has so many affinities, 

 in France pursues and devours the viper ; and that, under the 

 tropics, those animals attack reptiles which are much more 

 dangerously venomous. Among the absurdities related by 

 the Chinese of their partly fabulous me, they affirm that its 

 bones resist fire and steel ; and amulets are accordingly sup- 

 posed to be manufactured of them. These are usually con- 

 structed of the bones of fishes' heads, those of the ear of some 

 quadruped, or of the lamantin ; and it is observable that the 

 priests of Buddha possess the same pretendedly indestructible 

 relics. 



This portion of his subject the ingenious essayist concludes 

 thus: — Whether the knowledge of the mayba (American 

 tapir) has penetrated to China, or whether that of the Indian 

 species has reached that country through the centre of Asia, 

 the inhabitants have not disfigured it more by their relations 

 than by their representation ; so that the animal can be 

 equally recognised by its form and its alleged habits. 



Griffin. In attributing to the griffin of the Greeks a 

 similar origin with the me of the Chinese, M. Roulin uses 

 the following arguments and illustrations : — 



The Greeks, who trafficked across the Black Sea, came 

 in contact with the Scythians, and they, on their part, traded 

 with the Argipeans ; a Tartar people, with long chins, flat 

 noses, and shaved heads, who inhabited the valleys at the 

 foot of the Ural Mountains; the rich mines of which, no 

 doubt, formed a constant theme of intelligence from the 

 Scythians to the Greeks. In those early and superstitious 

 ages every treasure was supposed to possess its peculiar guar- 

 dian ; and, from obvious motives of policy, such warders were 

 chosen as would appear not less redoubtable in their power than 

 repulsively frightful in their appearance; and hence arose the 



