114 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



because the woolly fuzz on the skin is not pleasant to 

 the touch. He will eat almost any kind of insect, or 

 bits of raw meat from the breast of a chicken, but 

 cooked meat he does not like. Roaches are his favorite 

 food, and he has almost cleared the house of them. 



When the evening brings in his daytime he is 

 wide awake and very gentle, though never playful. 

 He will take the finger of his mistress in his paws, 

 convey it to his mouth, and lick the tip end of it 

 with his tongue, but he never at this time of day 

 ofliers to bite. On cold, wet days he is much crosser 

 and more out of temper than in warm, sunshiny 

 weather. 



There is something very peculiar in his way of 

 closing his eyes, for, instead of bringiag down the 

 eyelid over them as other mammals do, the lids come 

 together in a slanting direction, outward and inward. 

 He will sometimes rise up and stand erect like a little 

 man, or some kind of a queer goblin from fairyland, 

 for which, indeed, he was taken by the housemaid 

 when she first caught sight of him. 



The loris is not a rare animal in the countries 

 from which it comes — that is, in India, Cochin-China, 

 the Malay Archipelago, and the great islands of 

 Java, Borneo, and Sumatra ; but as it is always hidden 

 away during the daytime in its nest, which it builds 

 in hollow trees, and as it goes abroad in search of 

 food only at night, it is very seldom seen. 



