THE SLOTH 21 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE SLOTH. 



Op the Sloth there are two different kinds, distinguished from each 

 other by their claws ; the one, which in its native country is called 

 the unan, having only two claws upon each foot, and being without a 

 tail ; the other, which is called the ai, having a tail, and three claws 

 upon each foot. The unan has the snout longer, the ears more ap- 

 parent, and the fur very different from the other. It differs also in 

 the number of its ribs, this having forty-six, while the ai has but 

 twenty-eight. These differences, however, which though very appa- 

 rent, have been but little regarded in the description of two animals 

 which so strongly resemble each other in the general outlines of their 

 figure, in their appetites, and their helpless formation. 



They are both, therefore, described under the common appellation 

 of the sloth, and their habitudes well deserve our wonder and curiosity. 

 Nature seems cramped and constrained in their formation ; other ani- 

 mals are often indolent from choice, these are slow from necessity. 

 The ai, from which I shall take my description, and from which the 

 other differs only in the slight particulars above-mentioned, and in 

 being rather more active, is of about the size of a badger. Its fur is 

 coarse and staring, somewhat resembling dried grass ; the tail very 

 short, and scarce appearing ; the mouth extending from ear to ear ; 

 the eye dull and heavy ; the feet armed with three claws each, and 

 made so short, and set on so awkwardly, that a few paces is often the 

 journey of a week ; but though the feet are short, they are still longer 

 than its legs, and these proceed from the body in such an oblique di- 

 rection, that the sole of the foot seldom touches the ground. When 

 *he animal, therefore, is compelled to make a step forward, it scrapes 

 on the back of the nails along the surface, and wheeling the limbs cir- 

 cularly about, yet still touching the ground, it at length places its foot 

 in a progressive position ; the other three limbs are all brought about 

 with the same difficulty ; and thus it is seen to move, not above three 

 lieet in an hour. In fact, this poor creature seldom changes place but 

 by constraint, and when impelled by the severest stings of hunger. 



The sloth seems to be the meanest and most ill-formed of all those 

 animals that chew the cud ; it lives entirely upon vegetable food, on 

 the leaves, the fruit, and the flowers of trees, and often even on the 

 very bark, when nothing else is left on the tree for subsistence. Like 

 all other ruminant animals, it has four stomachs ; and these requiring 

 a large share of provision to supply them, it generally strips a tree ot 

 all its verdure in less than a fortnight. Still, however, it keeps aloft, 

 unwilling to descend, while any thing remains that can serve it for 

 food ; it therefore falls to devouring the bark, and thus in a short tima 

 kills the tree upon which it found its support. Thus destitute of pro- 

 visions above, and crawling slowly from branch to branch, in hope 1 * 



