THE AMERICAN TAPIR. 461 



back the puppies with which it was brought up. When it was forced to 

 leave a place it liked, it complained by uttering a few plaintive cries. 

 Frederick Cuvier assures us that if the Tapir would be of any use to us, 

 it could be very easily domesticated. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire also 

 wished the experiment of domesticating this animal in Europe to be 

 tried ; but his idea was never carried out. 



" Not less easy to feed than the pig," says Saint-Hilaire, " the 

 Tapir seems to me eminently suited to become one of our domestic 

 animals. When it has no creatures of its own kind to associate with, I 

 have seen it seeking the society of all the animals that were near, with 

 an eagerness without an example in other Mammalia. The Tapir would 

 be useful in two ways to man: its flesh, especially when improved 

 by proper diet, would furnish a wholesome and at the same time an 

 agreeable food ; and as it is much larger than the pig, the Tapir might 

 be of great service as a beast of burden to the inhabitants of the south of 

 Europe, and, after a time, to those of colder countries." 



The Tapirs are eagerly hunted. The hide is valuable for its thickness 

 and toughness, and whips made from it are exported in large numbers 

 tom the Argentine States. The claws are regarded by the Indians as a 

 great medicine, and a sovereign cure for the falling sickness if worn 

 round the neck, or, after having been reduced to powder, taken in- 

 wardly. Schomburgk describes a hunt: "As we advanced, we saw a 

 Tapir with its young on a sand-bank, but scarcely had the word 

 ' Maipuri ' passed the lips of our Indians, than the animals disappeared 

 in the thick bush that lines the shore. We landed at once, and as soon 

 as we had scrambled through the bush we saw that the fugitives were 

 making for the reeds and prickly grasses that covered the plain. Our 

 dogs were in the boat, and we had no desire to attempt to advance 

 through the reeds, but our Indians glided between the dangerous grasses 

 like serpents. Soon two shots were heard, then shouts of triumph. Our 

 ndians rushed in, and thus we found a road till we came to the prey. 

 ♦Vhile we were standing around it, our dogs came up and took up the 

 scent of the young one. Its whistling cry indicated that it was near the 

 edge of the reed-bed ; it soon broke cover, followed by the dogs and 

 thirty Indians whose yells were mingled with the baying of the dogs. 

 The animal grew weaker, and after an obstinate resistance, was secured 

 and carried to our boat." 



The young Tapir does not resemble the old ones in color. The back 



