HOW I BECAME AN IDLER 27 



ance during his Patagonian rambles about sixty 

 years ago; and in describing its fierce and hide- 

 ous aspect, remarks, "I do not think I ever saw 

 anything more ugly, excepting, perhaps, some of 

 the vampire bats." He speaks of the great 

 breadth of the jaws at the base, the triangular 

 snout, and the linear pupil in the midst of the 

 mottled coppery iris, and suggests that its ugly 

 and horrible appearance is due to the resemblance 

 of its face, in its shape, to the human countenance. 

 This idea of the ugliness or repulsiveness of 

 an inferior animal, due to its resemblance to man 

 in face, is not, I believe, uncommon ; and I suppose 

 that the reason that would be given for the feeling 

 is that an animal of that kind looks like a vile 

 copy of ourselves, or like a parody maliciously 

 designed to mock us. It is an erroneous idea, or, 

 at all events, is only a half-truth, as we recognize 

 at once when we look at animals that are more 

 or less human-like in countenance, and yet cause 

 no repulsion. Seals may be mentioned the mer- 

 maids and mermen of the old mariners; also the 

 sloth with its round simple face, to which its hu- 

 man shape imparts a somewhat comical and pa- 

 thetic look. Many monkeys seem ugly to us, but 

 we think the lemurs beautiful, and greatly admire 

 the marmosets, those hairy manikins with spright- 

 ly, bird-like eyes. And yet it is true that there 

 is something human in the faces of this and per- 

 haps of other pit-vipers, and of some vampire bats, 

 as Darwin remarks; and that the horror they 



