MAMMALS 15 



it will prevent his doing any acts of tyranny to us, 

 and if we cook it with oil of snake or tiger or olive 

 oil and rub it on the feet of a weak person, it will 

 strengthen him. ... If the liver be dried and a piece 

 taken and rubbed up and given to a woman to eat it will 

 produce in her feelings of love towards us." Its tears, 

 when applied to human eyeballs, are supposed to impart 

 such clearness of sight that ghosts become visible. Its 

 tears can be induced to flow by taking the Loris amongst 

 a herd of cows, whereupon it will weep copiously ; 

 another plan, which sounds more reasonable, is to 

 wrap the animal in a cloth and throw pepper in its 

 eyes. 



Singular in appearance as is the Slow Loris, it is 

 less remarkable than the other Bornean Lemur, Tarsius 

 spectrum. The Tarsier is the most curious little ghoul 

 of an animal imaginable, and as no specimen has ever 

 reached a European menagerie, the naturalist, when he 

 first encounters the animal in its native land cannot 

 fail to be fascinated by its quaintly unfamiliar aspect. 

 The body, which is clothed in a soft brown fur, is 

 about 5^ inches long ; the tail is 6 inches in length 

 and is quite naked except for a tuft of sparse hairs at 

 the extremity. The head is almost globular and the eyes 

 are enormous. The large ears stand well out from the 

 head and are very mobile and sensitive ; in repose the 

 ear-conchs are wrinkled and partly contracted in trans- 

 verse folds, but on the slightest noise they are pricked 

 forward and all traces of wrinkles disappear. The muzzle 

 is quite short, and the lips are rather thick and fleshy, 

 giving the animal a ludicrously smug expression, which 

 is intensified during moments of content and well-being. 

 I have occasionally been asked by friends to admire 



