BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY 301 
afterward to Granado, 
where the King of 
Spain saw it, which 
soon after by reason of 
the change of aire and 
incertainty of diet, did 
also pine away and die. 
The like things doth 
Cardan report of a 
beast called Chiurca, in 
Hispania Nova, and 
Stadinius of a Suruvoy 
in America: but I con- 
jecture that the former 
is this Fox-Ape called 
in Greek, Alopecopithe- 
cos, and of the Ger- 
mans Fuschsaffe, the 
latter the Female Cy- 
nocephal, which carry- 
eth her womb wherein 
lie her young ones with- 
out her belly.” 
ravenous beast. 
Of a Wilde Beast 
in the New-found 
World called Su. 
“There is a Region 
in the New-found 
World, called Gigantes, 
and the Inhabitants 
thereof are called Pan- 
tagones; now because 
their Countrey is cold, 
being far in the South, 
they clothe themselves 
with the skins of a 
Beast called in their 
own tongue Su, for by 
reason that this Beast 
liveth for the most part 
neer the waters, there- 
fore they call it by the 
name of Su, which sig- 
nifieth water. The 
true Image thereof as it was taken by Theve- 
tus, I have here inserted, for it is of a very 
deformed shape, and monstrous presence, a 
great ravener and untamable wilde Beast. 
When the Hunters that desire her skin set 
upon her, she flyeth very swift, carrying her 
young ones upon her back, and covering 
them with her broad tail: now forsomuch as 
no Dog or Man dareth to approach neer unto 
her, (because such is the wrath thereof, that 
Haut.”’ 
Opossum and family on the march. 
called by Thevet and others the ‘‘Su,’’ and characterized as a ferocious and 
[From Thevet’s ‘‘Singularitez,”’ 1558] 
WEE 
LL 
Wt, 
L. 
~ 
This slender-waisted creature is 
This amiable-looking creature (three-toed sloth) is called by Thevet ‘the 
The human-like expression is not wholly imaginary, being some- 
what characteristic of the young sloth. 
(From Thevet, 1558) 
in the pursuit she killeth a!l that cometh near 
her:) the Hunters dig several pits or great 
holes in the earth, which they cover with 
boughs, sticks, and earth, so weakly that if 
the Beast chance at any time to come upon it, 
she and her young ones fall down into the pit 
and are taken. 
This cruel, untamable, impatient, violent, 
ravening, and bloudy beast, perceiving that 
her natural strength cannot deliver her from 
