GHOSTS AND OMENS 
get up into another Tree; but before his slow pace can compass this, he 
becomes as poor and lean as ’tis possible to imagine: And if the trees be 
high, or the way anything distant, and he meets with nothing on his journey, 
he inevitably dies of Hunger, betwixt one tree and the other. Thus ’tis 
tepresented by others, but I will not undertake for the Truth of it. 
IT know nothing more of this Animal, than that ’tis impossible to oe on 
him without Horrour, and that he hath nothing very particular but his 
odious Ugliness.” 
In the evening a loris will sometimes get up energy enough to 
rise on its hind legs and then fall forward on an insect; and one 
placed on the ground may be forced into a wavering kind of 
trot. The Oriental slow loris chatters when angry, and when 
pleased utters a short though tuneful whistle thought by Chi- 
nese sailors, who take them to sea, to denote the coming of wind. 
Lemurs are all perfectly harmless, yet their big eyes, weird 
actions, and often loud and strange cries in the dark woods, 
have led to their being partly reverenced and partly pear of 
feared by the natives of their countries. The very Lemurs: 
name ‘“‘lemur,”’ given them by Linneus, means “ghost.” In 
Madagascar, where they are the most characteristic animals 
of the forest, none is intentionally killed by anybody. Travel- 
ers are told that if a person sleeps in the forest an aye-aye will 
bring him a pillow —if for his head the person will become 
rich; if for his feet he will either die or become bewitched. 
Hence if an aye-aye is accidentally caught in a trap the owner 
will usually set it free, after smearing it with grease to render 
it harmless. Some Malagasies believe that their ancestors were 
changed after death into the great babakoto, and that the trees 
in which these clamorous lemurs dwell supply infallible reme- 
dies against otherwise incurable diseases. Forbes,’ after read- 
ing the works of French explorers, writes : — 
“The people say it is very dangerous to kill these lemurs with spears, 
because if a spear is hurled against one of them it seizes the spear in its 
flight without being in itself hurt, and in its turn stabs with certain aim 
those attacking it. They also relate that when the female has borne a 
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