GUIANA TRICHECHUS. 247 



overflow their banks) begin to return into the bed 

 of the river, the Indians make dams across the 

 mouths of the shallow lakes formed by the floods, 

 and thus take great numbers of Manatis, as well 

 as tortoises, fish, &c» 



We must not here omit the curious history of a 

 tame Manati, which, at the time of the arrival of 

 the Spaniards, was kept by a prince of Hispaniola, 

 in a lake adjoining to his residence. It was, on 

 account of its gentle nature, called, in the lan- 

 guage of the country, by the name of Matum. 

 It would appear as soon as it was called by any of 

 its familiars; for it hated the Spaniards, on ac- 

 count of an injury it had received from one of 

 those adventurers. The fable of Arion was here 

 realized. It would offer itself to the Indian fa- 

 vourites, and carry over the lake ten at a time, 

 singing and playing on its back: one youth it was 

 particularly enamoured with, which reminds me 

 (says Mr. Pennant) of the classical parallel in the 

 Dolphin of Hippo, so beautifully related by the 

 younger Pliny. The fates of the two animals 

 were very different : Matum escaped to its native 

 waters by means of a violent flood : the Hipponen- 

 sian fish fell a sacrifice to the poverty of the re- 

 tired colonists # . 



Trkhechus ? Hydropithecus. 

 Sea- Ape Manati. Pennant. 



This species is only known from the description 

 of Steller, who, near the coast of America, saw a 



* Vide Pet. Martyr's Decades of the Indies, Dec, 3, book 8. 



