44 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



of it in which these are shown are in that respect erroneous. 

 The origin of the word " manatee " has by some been 

 traced to the Spanish, as indicating " an animal with 

 hands." On the west coast of Africa it is called by the 

 natives " Ne-hoo-le." By old writers it was described as 

 the "sea-cow." Gesner depicts it in the act of bellowing; 

 and Mr. Bates, in his work, " The Naturalist on the 

 Amazon," says that its voice is something like the bellow- 

 ing of an ox. The Florida " crackers " or " mean whites," 

 make the same statement. Although I have had oppor- 

 tunities of prolonged observation of it in captivity, I have 

 not heard it give utterance to any sound — not even a grunt 

 — and Mr. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens, tells me that 

 his experience of it is the same. His son, Mr. Clarence 

 Bartlett, says that a young one he had in Surinam used to 

 make a feeble cry, or bleat, very much like the voice of 

 a young seal. This is the only sound he ever heard from 

 a manatee.* 



I believe the dugong to be more especially the animal 

 referred to by .^lian as the semi-human whale, and that 

 which has led to this group having been supposed by southern 

 voyagers to be aquatic human beings. In the first place, 

 the dugong is a denizen of the sea, whereas the manatee 

 is chiefly found in rivers and fresh-water lagoons ; and 

 secondly, the dugong accords with Elian's description of 

 the creature with a woman's face in that it has "prickles 

 instead of hairs," whilst the manatee has no such stiff 

 bristles. 



In the case of either of these two animals being mistaken 



* For a full description of the habits of this animal in captivity, see 

 an article by the present writer in the 'Leisure Hour 'of September 

 28, 1878 ; from which the illustration, Fig. 17, is borrowed by the kind 

 consent of the Editor of that publication. 



