244 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



the people, no amount of money would be a sufficient inducement to go in pursuit of 

 the creature, ' because,' say they, ' we value our own lives more than money.' It is 

 only a few of the more daring spirits among them, who knowing the odiny, that is 

 the secret by which they can disarm it of its dreaded power, have the courage to 

 attempt its capture. Occasionally it is brought to Tamatave for sale, where it 

 realizes a good sum. Now and then it is accidentally caught in the traps which the 

 natives set for lemurs ; but the owner of the trap, unless one of those versed in the 

 aye-aye mysteries, who know the charm by which to counteract its evil power, 

 smears fat over it, thus securing its forgiveness and good-will, and sets it free." 



Another account was published in the following year by the Rev. G. A. Shaw, 

 also a resident in Madagascar, and since it differs somewhat from the preceding, 

 which it supplements in some other respects, it may be likewise quoted. Mr. Shaw 

 starts by stating, in opposition to Mr. Baron, that the name of the creature is de- 

 rived from hay ! hay ! the Malagasy exclamation of surprise ; the animal being 

 known to the natives as the Haikay (pronounced Hayekaye). Be its origin what it 

 may, there is thus full testimony that the name by which we know the creature is 

 substantially the same as that by which it is known in its native land. 



"Being a nocturnal animal," Mr. Shaw continues, "it is very difficult to get 

 any reliable information concerning its habits in the wild state, and native reports 

 are altogether contradictory with respect to these matters. Even with reference to 

 its natural food, no satisfactory explanation can be obtained from the people. Many 

 assert positively that it lives on honey ; but one I had in captivity would not eat 

 honey in any form, either strained or in the comb, or mixed with various things I 

 thought he might have a fancy for. Others say it lives on fruits and leaves ; others 

 that birds and eggs are its natural food. I fancy from what I saw of my captive 

 that both these conjectures are nearer the truth ; for after a few days, during which 

 it would eat nothing, and it was thought that the proper food had not been offered 

 (but it was in reality pining or sulking), it took several fruits which I was able to 

 procure for it. It liked bananas ; but it made sorry efforts at eating them, its teeth 

 being so placed that its mouth was clogged with them. The small fruits of various 

 native shrubs it also devoured, as also rice boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar ; 

 but meat, larvae, moths, beetles, and eggs it would not touch. But I noticed that 

 when I came near its cage with a light, it almost invariably started and went for a 

 little distance in chase of the shadows of the pieces of bananas attached to the wire- 

 work in front of its cage ; and I think that if I could have procured some small 

 birds it would have, if not devoured them, at any rate killed them for their blood, 

 as some lemurs are known to do. It drank water occasionally, but in such a way as 

 to make it highly probable that it does not drink from streams or pools in the ordi- 

 nary way. It did not hold its food in its hands as the lemurs which I have had in 

 captivity have done, but merely used its hands to steady it on the bottom of the 

 cage. But whenever it had eaten, although it did not always clean its hands, it in- 

 variably drew each of its long claws through its mouth, as though, in the natural 

 state, these had taken a chief part in procuring its food. 



"In some accounts, given by different writers, the haikay is said to be easily 

 tamed, and to be inoffensive. ... In each of these qualities, I have found, both 



