60 DUVAR ON ADDITIONS TO GAME OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



not such as have been confirmed by later investigations. In these 

 days of minute and exact research, it may not be uninteresting. 

 from the stand point to which the waves of progress have wafted 

 us, to pause and look back to the landmarks that mdicate the 

 ebb and flow of the great ocean of Truth, on the shores of which 

 this generation and those past have alike been picking up shells. 

 Navarette, for instance, describes, in the empii-e of China, an 

 alligator, three fathoms thick, in which were found three men's 

 heads, with some daggers and bracelets. Nevertheless there was 

 an herb which enabled the possessor to ride this fomiidable crea- 

 ture with safety, as Water ton rode the cayman. The unicorn is 

 described, among other qualities, as being "a mercifol beast." 

 The mermaids of the Gambia are reputed, when fried, to resemble 

 pork. A singular efficacy against falling sickness resides in the leg 

 of the elk, vMch leg is discovered by knocking the animal do\ATiy 

 and observing with which foot he scratches his ear. There is a 

 variety of goat in Nankin, that has ears and nose, but no mouth, 

 and lives upon the air. A still more extraordinary animal must 

 be described in the author's own words. "There are two other 

 strange and remarkable creatures in China. The one is called 

 Lang; its forefeet are very long, and the hinder ones short. The 

 other beast is named Poei, or Poi, whose hind feet are long and 

 the fore feet short, whence it follows that they cannot go singly 

 apart from one another. Their Maker taught them how they 

 should go from place to place to feed and seek theu* sustenance. 

 Two of them join, and one helps the other, so that one sets down 

 the long fore feet, ,and the other hind feet, so they make one body 

 that can walk : thus they get their food and live. The Chineses 

 call miserable poor wretches that cannot live by themselves lang 

 poi, to signify that they want some assistance to get a living. This 

 is not unlike a lame and a blind man, one finds eyes and the other 

 feet, and then they help one another and walk." The same or 

 another observer met with a fowl the size of a chicken, which laid, 

 a yard deep in the sand, eggs "bigger than the bird itself, so that 

 no man living would j^idge that the eggs could be contained within 

 it." In the vegetable kingdom, the curate of Labaun saw a tree 

 whose leaves falling to the ground turned mto mice. And in 

 Lower Germany are found on the sea shore trees Avhose leaves, 

 dropping into the water, are converted into ducks. 



