142 ON THE LOIUS, &C. 



and Linnj£i t s.; nor can I suggest any other, since 

 the Pandits know little or nothing of the animal. The 

 lower Hindus of this province generally call it Lajja- 

 $dttar, or the Bashiul Ape; and the Mnselmans, re- 

 taining the sense of the epithet, give it the absurd 

 appellation of a Cat ; but it is neither a cat nor bash- 

 ful ; for though a Pandit, who saw my Lemur by 

 day-light, remarked that he was Lajjnlu, or modest (a 

 word which *jjjfe Hindus apply to all sensitive plants) 

 yet he only seemed bashful, while in fact he was dim- 

 sighted and drowsv ; for at night, as you perceive 

 by his figure, he had open eyes, and as much bold- 

 ness as any of the Lemures poetical or Limicean. 



IV. As to his country, the first of the species that 

 I saw in India was in the district of lipra, properly 

 Iripire, whither it had been brought, like mine, 

 from the Garrcw mountains; and Dr. Anderson 

 informs me, that it is found in the woods on the coast 

 of CoroniandeL Another had been sent to a member 

 of our society from one of the eastern isles; and tho/ 

 the Lofts may be also a native of S/hin, yet I cannot 

 aoree with M. De Buffon, that it is the minute, 

 sociable, and docile animal mentioned by Thevenot, 

 which it resembles neither in size nor in disposition. 



M v little friend was, on the whole, 5 a g* n g J 



and when He was found lifeless, in the same post 

 in which he would naturally have slept, I consoled 

 myself with believing that he had died without pain, 

 and lived with as much pleasure as he could have < 

 joyed in a state of captivity. 



A c COMICAL 



