120 THE TAPIR. 



He gives a very convincing proof of the attachment 

 of the tapir: "I have kept for two years a tapir 

 which had been taken when young on the banks of the 

 Rio San Francisco. He passed all the time of his 

 captivity in the court of a college frequented by two 

 hundred scholars, with whom he played like the most 

 intelligent dog, without ever offending even those who 

 sometimes took pleasure in teasing him. When the 

 hour of recreation arrived, he would appear delighted, 

 showing his pleasure by leaping and racing about. If 

 the scholars did not seem to be paying proper attention 

 to him, he would go to excite and entice them to come 

 and share in his gambols. But when he was too much 

 tormented by his playfellows, far from seeking to 

 defend himself by doing them any injury, he would 

 run to take refuge in a trough filled with water for his 

 use, and there, uttering a grunt of satisfaction, he 

 appeared to set his persecutors at defiance, whilst they, 

 tiring of the game, would leave him in repose, and 

 soon give themselves to other sports. This interesting 

 animal, which as a rule ate nothing but green herbs, 

 had become accustomed to all kinds of nourishment. 

 They gave him all the debris of the kitchen, which he 

 ate without his health appearing to suffer in the least 

 degree. He died of a wound in his leg, caused by a 

 fall upon a broken bottle." 



An inhabitant of Santa-Maria-de-Belene (Para) pos- 



