THE GREAT DOG-SUPERSTITION 285 



Fortunately such a feeling or instinct can be amply 

 gratified without the dog ; there are scores, per- 

 haps hundreds, of species incomparably before this 

 animal in all estimable qualities, which can be 

 touched with hand and lips without defilement. 

 Only a few need be mentioned in this place. 



One of the first animals worthy of so high a 

 distinction, which would occur to many travelled 

 men, is the marmoset : a fairy monkey in its 

 smallness and extreme beauty, clothed in long soft 

 hair with a lustre as of spun silk ; in manners 

 pleasantly tricksy, but not scatter-brained and 

 wildly capricious like its larger irresponsible rela- 

 tions, which is an advantage. No visitor to the 

 Brazils can have failed to be charmed with these 

 small animals, which are frequently kept as pets by 

 ladies, and among pets they are surpassed by none 

 in attachment to their mistress. 



A nobler animal, capable of endearing itself to 

 man as well as woman, is the lemur, of which there 

 are several very beautiful species. Strong, agile, 

 swift and graceful in action as the monkey, to 

 which it is related, but with an even, placid dis- 

 position ; monkey-like in form, but without the 

 monkey's angularities and that appearance of 

 spareness which reminds one of a naked, half- 

 starved Hindoo, he has a better - proportioned 

 figure for beauty, and his dark, richly coloured 

 coat of woolly fur gives a pleasing roundness to his 

 form. Moreover, he has not got the monkey's 

 pathetic old man's withered countenance, but a 



