6 DAUBENTONIA 



exhibited much fondness for it, cutting deeply into the cane with its 

 powerful incisor teeth, then the fibre was drawn out and the juice 

 extracted by chewing. 



Mr. Shaw (1. c.) gives an interesting account of an Aye- Aye he 

 had in captivity, relating its peculiar habits, most of which have already 

 been given in the quoted statements of previous writers, but certain 

 facts are worth recording. He says when his captive in its eflforts 

 to escape bit at the wire of its cage he noticed that the incisors of either 

 jaw would separate and admit the wire between them even down to the 

 gum, causing their tips to be a considerable distance apart. It was 

 very savage and struck with its hands, but in the daytime its move- 

 ments were slow and uncertain. 



Regarding the superstitions the natives entertain of the animal, he 

 states that many years ago, the Betsimisaraka, in whose country the 

 Aye-Aye is chiefly found, had occasion to open an old tomb in which an 

 ancestor had been buried. No sooner was an entrance effected than 

 an animal, which was a development of said ancestor, sprang out, and 

 their exclamation of surprise, "Haye-haye," became the creature's 

 name. Hence many of these people believe that the Aye-Aye is an 

 embodiment of their forefathers and will not touch it, but when they 

 happen to find a dead one in the forest, they make a tomb for it and 

 bury it with all formality. They imagine that if they try to catch one 

 they will surely die, and this belief extends even to the animal's nest. 

 If one is given, or picks up accidentally a portion of these structures 

 on which the head of an Aye-Aye has rested, it will bring good for- 

 tune ; while if it happens to be the part on which the feet had been 

 placed, bad luck or death would surely follow. 



