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the strange idea of a plantigrade animal, the 

 toes of which are placed as if it walked back- 

 ward, take it's origin from the habit of the real 

 savages of the woods, the Indians of the weakest 

 and most timid tribes, of deceiving their ene- 

 mies, when they enter a forest, or cross a sandy 

 shore, by covering the traces of their feet with 

 sand, or walking backward ? 



I have just expressed my doubts of the exist- 

 , ence of an unknown species of large monkey in 

 a continent, which appears entirely destitute of 

 quadrumanes of the family of the ourangs, 

 cynocephali, mandrils, and pongoes. Let us 

 not forget, that all articles of popular belief, 

 even the most absurd in appearance, repose on 

 real facts, but ill observed. In treating them 

 with disdain, the traces of a discovery may often 

 be lost in natural philosophy, as well as in zoo- 

 logy. We will not then admit, with a Spanish 

 author, that the fable of the man of the woods 

 was invented by the artifice of Indian women, 

 who pretended to have been carried off, when 

 they had been long absent unknown to their 

 husbands ; we rather counsel travellers, who 

 shall visit after us the missions of the Oroonoko, 

 to continue our researches on the salvaje or 

 great devil of the woods ; and examine whether 

 it be some unknown species of bear, or some 

 very rare monkey analogous to the simia chiro- 



