ORDER EDENTATA. 273 



out the amplest evidence. However, be this as it may, 

 every one of these animals exhibits, in the highest degree, 

 that mode of organization which renders them the slowest 

 of all animals, and even the slowest in their own genus. 



In the Ai a very great degree of muscular power is united 

 with an extraordinary portion of vitality. It seizes, with 

 its enormous claws, the branches of trees, and hooks itself 

 upon them with such tenacity, that it is exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to make it let go its hold ; there it will remain sus- 

 pended, with the body turned upside down, and describing 

 the figure of an arch. If any one is desirous of taking it, 

 the shortest way is to cut down the branch to which it is 

 attached. Thus it may be carried away, and it will never 

 change its position ; but it is an acquisition of no great 

 value, as a pupil most invincibly stupid, and a prodigiously 

 dull companion. Its flesh and fur are good for nothing; 

 it seems incapable of every kind of sentiment ; it is never 

 agitated by fear; it shews neither aversion nor inclination 

 for a domestic state ; it testifies neither joy, nor gratitude, 

 nor astonishment, nor uneasiness : all its sensations seem 

 obtuse, and it presents an image, which we can scarcely 

 term living, of the most perfect apathy. Its plaintive cry 

 inspires melancholy, as well as its aspect ; it is a feeble 

 sound, which strikes upon the ear like the accents of 

 sorrow, and were we not acquainted with the immoveable 

 dulness of the animal that utters it, we might fancy it 

 a lament over his weak and helpless condition. The 

 savages of America have characterized this sound very well 

 by the vowels a, i } of which they have formed the name of 

 the animal itself. 



Old travellers have related a pleasant passage connected 

 with the love-affairs of these interesting animals ; they 

 say, that at the approach of the female AY, the male, by 

 way of preliminary endearment, falls fast asleep several 

 times. This is a sort of amorous eagerness not unworthy 



