18 



FOUR-HANDED FOLK. 



around his neck, laid itself over his eyes, or 

 moved back and forth before his face, while 

 he, lying on his back, seized it, pretended to bite 

 and worry it. The card-table was wonderfully 

 fascinating to him ; the cards he liked to put his 

 sharp teeth into, and the cribbage pegs were 

 simply irresistible. 



The little animal was pretty as well as inter- 

 esting ; about the size of a small cat, being fifteen 

 inches from tip of nose to root of tail, with a 

 furry, prehensile tail, sixteen inches long, which 

 was always curled over at the tip. He had 

 kinky wool, of a beautiful golden-brown color, 

 darker on the back, with shining golden tips in 

 the daylight ; this stood straight out all over his 

 body excepting on the back of his hands, where 

 it was silky and lay flat. 



His hands, though without opposable thumbs, 

 were beautifully shaped, with long, delicate fin- 

 gers, webbed to the knuckles, with double joints, 

 enabling him to bend them either way, and soft 

 thick cushions or pads inside, so that he was 

 shod with silence. His feet were exactly like his 

 hands, excepting a heel-bone. Both hands and 

 feet had long claws instead of nails, and were 

 flesh-colored inside. His head was really beauti- 

 ful, — shaped somewhat like a cat's, with a face 

 of a grayish color ; he had delicate, sensitive ears, 

 not large, but very wide open and movable with 



