THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
young one, she takes the little creature in her arms and tosses it to her mate, 
who is seated on a neighboring tree, and that he throws it back to the female. 
If the little one does not fall to the ground after being subjected to this exer- 
cise for a dozen times, the parents bring it up with the greatest care; but 
if the contrary event happens, they abandon it, not even troubling to pick 
it up.” 
This is an excellent example of the sort of material with 
which the pages of ‘‘natural history’ books were formerly 
loaded, as serious informa- 
tion, not, as here, as the 
credulous say-so of childish 
savages; andrecent develop- 
ments in literature seem to 
show that modern readers 
would accept the same sort 
of wonder-tales as confid- 
ingly as did our grand- 
fathers. 
Similar superstitions at- 
tach to both species of 
Oriental loris. Thus, the 
curious emaciated “slender” 
loris of southern India 
and Ceylon is brought in 
large numbers to the mar- 
kets of Madras, because, as 
Jerdon “* explains, their big eyes are a favorite remedy among 
Tamil doctors for ophthalmic diseases; and Tennent *” reports 
that the Singhalese compose from their eyeballs love potions 
and charms. The Malays of Sumatra told Stanley Flower “ 
that the ‘‘slow” loris is always unhappy because it is forever 
seeing ghosts, and that is why it hides its face in its hands — 
an instance of the way in which acute observation of specific 
habits and manners is frequently mingled with gross mistakes 
56 
Copyright, NY Zuol, Soe. Sanborn, Phot, 
SLOW Loris. 
