LEMURS AND SUPERSTITION 



mark. Coupled with this habit of biting is a partly 

 carnivorous diet. The loris will eat almost anything in 

 the way of vegetables, and it is also singularly adroit 

 in catching birds. A mixed diet occurs, it will be 

 observed, among groups of animals which have some 

 claims to be considered archaic ; thus, the venerable 

 pig tribe is omnivorous. So too the Artoid carnivora, 

 which are among the more ancient types di living bears, 

 are mixed eaters. The slow loris has many vernacular 

 names in the east ; among them are " Bashful Cat," 

 " Bashful Monkey," " Wind Monkey." These names 

 have all a meaning ; the first two, of course, are plainly 

 to be referred to the slow and nocturnal habits of the 

 little lemur. The last may be in allusion to its whistling 

 note ; but perhaps it has been given to it on account 

 of the belief among the Chinese sailors that its voice 

 presages wind. Much other superstition has gathered 

 round this certainly rather weird-looking little Primate. 

 Captain Flower has discovered that a general view is 

 held in Siam that if a man commits a crime which he 

 did not premeditate, some one has " unbeknownst " 

 buried a piece of loris under his threshold. The amount 

 of legend which envelops wild animals seems to be in 

 some proportion to the singularity of their physiognomy. 

 Thus, the singular Madagascar lemur, the Chiromys, 

 with its eager eyes and long thin middle finger, is held to 

 presage good fortune, if it brings a traveller in the forest 

 a pillow and places it under his head. The story re- 

 minds one a little of the stone lion who wags its tail 

 when it hears the clock strike twelve. The Nycticebus 

 tardigradus carries its young one wrapped round its 

 body like some other lemurs. It remains there, as do 

 the young kangaroos in the pouch, until of large size. 

 One wonders whether this habit may not be indeed a 

 reminiscence of the earlier presence of a pouch in some 

 ancient lemur. 



45 



