THE TAPIR. 119 



Notwithstanding this wild disposition, it is tamed 

 with the greatest facility at least, if it is taken young. 

 Its timidity soon makes way for the greatest fami- 

 liarity. "It becomes tame from the first day," says 

 d'Azara, "and goes all about the house without leaving 

 it. Every one can touch it and stroke it not that it 

 prefers one to another, or obeys one more or less than 

 another ; and if it is wished to get it out of a place, 

 it becomes necessary to force it out. It does not bite ; 

 and if it is inconvenienced in any way, it utters a 

 shrill kind of whistle, quite disproportionate to its 

 size. It drinks like the hog, and eats raw or cooked 

 meat and food of all kinds, and whatever comes in its 

 way not excepting woollen rags or bits of silk. I 

 have seen it many times gnawing my walking- stick ; 

 and on one occasion it was doing the same to a silver 

 snuff-box. It seems to be more gluttonous than the 

 pig, and its sense of taste does not seem to enable it to 

 distinguish one thing from another." 



A contemporaneous observer, M. Chabrillac, does 

 not agree with d'Azara as to the indifference which, 

 according to this latter, the tapir shows for the persons 

 amongst whom it lives. " It loves the society of 

 man," says M. Chabrillac, " attaches itself to all 

 those who show it kindness, and exhibits a special 

 predilection for children, whose sports it shares without 

 ever doing them the least harm." 



