THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 15 



from a gentleman ; should she be detected in so doing her life 

 would pay the penalty. Infidelity is punished by tying the 

 woman and her paramour back to back and throwing them into 

 the sea, where they are quickly devoured by crocodiles which 

 infest the shore. 



THE PIG-DEER OF CELEBES. 



THE wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island of 

 Celebes ; but a much more curious animal of this family is the 

 Babirusa, or pig-deer, so named by the Malays from its long and 

 slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns. This extraor- 

 dinary creature resembles a pig in general appearance, but it does 

 not root with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits. The tusks 

 of the lower jaw are very long and sharp, but the upper ones, 

 instead of growing downward, in the usual way, are completely 

 reversed, growing upward, out of bony sockets, through the skin 

 on each side of the snout, curving backward to near the eyes, 

 and in old animals often reaching eight or ten inches in length. 

 It is difficult to understand what can be the use of these extraor- 

 dinary horn-like teeth. Some of the old writers supposed that 

 they served as hooks, by which the creature could rest its head 

 on a branch. But the way in which they usually diverge just 

 over and in front of the eyes has suggested the more probable 

 idea that they serve to guard these organs from thorns and spines 

 while hunting for fallen fruits among the tangled thickets of rat- 

 tans and other spiny plants. Even this, however, is not satisfac- 

 tory, for the female, who must seek her food in the same way, 

 does not possess them. It is probable that these tusks were once 

 useful, and were then worn down as fast as they grew; but 

 changed conditions of life have rendered them unnecessary, and 

 they now develop into a montrous form, just as the incisors of 

 the beaver or rabbit will go on growing, if the opposite teeth do 

 not wear them away. 



ADVENTURE WITH A PYTHON. 



SNAKES, though not particularly numerous in the Archipelago, 

 are wonderfully sociable, preferring houses to trees and caves, so 



