FACTS ABOUT THE LAMA 



true bezards, as they are sometimes called, apparently 

 come from the wild goat Capra cegagrus. The use of 

 these stones was the important one that they were 

 believed to be antidotes to poison. In old days, when 

 aqua tofana was a more generally used means of in- 

 heriting property than now, bezards had a corresponding 

 value. It is said that even so recently as 1847 these 

 antidotes were in use in Chili. The " Allocamelus," 

 as the scholar J. C. Scaliger, and Gesner, following him, 

 called the lama, was a beast which was of course un- 

 known to Europeans until the sixteenth century ; the 

 first example as it appears that was ever exhibited in 

 Europe was in 1558. In this year a contemporary 

 woodcut exhibited the lama as a beast of colossal size 

 in accordance with a custom which has not yet and 

 never will die out, of representing anything unknown as 

 large " omne ignotum pro magno " we might better ren- 

 der a common saying. This specimen came from the 

 " Terra gigantum," by which is undoubtedly meant 

 Patagonia. Others have thought Peru the natural 

 home of the lama, as is claimed by the postal authorities 

 of that explosive republic. Everyone, in this case 

 literally " every schoolboy," knows of the beautiful 

 Peruvian stamps, green in colour and with lamas figured 

 upon them. As a matter of fact, Palaeontology seems 

 to show that the lamas sprang into being in the north 

 and wandered over the isthmus of Panama into South 

 America, where they flourished until to to-day, dying 

 out in the less congenial north. A singular fact in the 

 life history of the lama has been commented upon by 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson. It appears that lamas select not 

 exactly burying grounds, but places wherein to die. 

 When a lama feels that it is not much longer for this 

 world, it seeks such a place and turns its face to the 

 wall. In this way piles of bones accumulate ; and it 

 may be that " bone beds " of past times which abound 



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