NATIVE STORIES OF THE BABAKOTO. I03 



whole body, even the fingers and toes down to the nails. Its dental 

 formula is 



t2 — 2 I — I 2 — 2 ^,3 — 3 



I. , C. , P. , M. = 30. 



I — I I — I 2 — 2 3 — 3 



The genus contains Jive species, all natives of Madagascar. 



THE BABAKOTO. 



The BABAKOTO, Indris brevicmidatus, was for a long time the only- 

 known species. It attains a length of nearly three feet, including eight 

 and a half inches of tail. Its almost hairless face is of a brownish-black 

 color. The head, including the ears, shoulders, arms and hands, are 

 black, the back is brown, the forehead, temples, throat, breast, tail and 

 flanks are white. The creature is so little known that it is not yet ascer- 

 tamed whether these colors change at various ages, or whether they 

 belong to both sexes. 



The Crowned Indris, Indris viitratiis, — perhaps merely a variety 

 — is somewhat smaller ; the hair is more silky and the coloring of extra- 

 ordinary beauty. The naked black muzzle and the cheeks thinly covered 

 with gray hairs are set in a broad, gray, black-bordered frame which run- 

 ning down each side of the face unites at the throat, and joins a spot of 

 dazzling white which dies away on the neck into grayish-white streaks. 

 The ears, shoulders, upper part of the back, and the breast are black; a 

 triangular patch, beginning at the lower part of the back and gradually 

 broadening to the rump, is white ; the tail is a reddish cream-color, the 

 feet are light gray. 



Sonnerat describes the Babakoto as active and a good leaper; it eats 

 like a squirrel, holding its foot up to its mouth. Vinson, during his pas- 

 sage through the great Alanamasoatrao forest, was almost deafened by 

 its cries, and inferred that it must collect into large bands. The natives 

 reverence it as a holy animal, and believe the souls of their ancestors pass 

 into it at death ; hence they consider that the trees on which the Baba- 

 koto lives is an infallible cure for all diseases, and use its leaves as a 

 remedy in dangerous cases. They say too that it is dangerous to hurl 

 a lance at it, as the Indris can catch the spear in its flight and hurl it back 

 on the aggressor, and that the mother after birth throws her young one 

 to the male who throws it back again, and when this has been repeated 



