THE GHOSTS OF THE TROPICAL FOREST 17 
skin jacket, only far deeper and closer, so that the 
hand sinks into it as into a bed of moss. The head is 
large and most intelligent, the face being set with a 
pair of very large, round, hazel eyes, in which the 
lines of the orbit seem not to radiate from the centre, 
but to be arranged in circles, like the layers of growth 
in the section of a tree. The long tail is at the base 
almost as wide as the body, tapering to a point, and 
covered with deep fur. But the greatest beauty of 
form which this lemur owns is the shape of its hands 
and feet. These exquisite little members are so far 
an exact reproduction of the human hand, that not 
only the hands, but also the feet, own a fully-deve- 
loped thumb. But each finger, as well as the thumb, 
expands into a tiny disc, as in certain tree-frogs, so 
that the little hands may cling to the tree with the 
tightness of an air-pump. It is plain, as the half- 
sleeping lemur climbs over the arms and shoulders of 
its visitor, that it takes him for a tree. The arms are 
stretched wide apart, the thumbs and fingers are 
spread, and grasp each fold of the coat with the 
anxious care of one who thinks that a slip will cause a 
fall of a hundred feet, and the soft body and tail half 
envelop the limb down which they are descending, 
fitting to the surface like some warm enveloping boa. 
As soon as it reaches the hay-pile in its cage the 
lemur instantly burrows, its long tail vanishing like a 
snake, and in a minute it is once more asleep, and 
unconscious of the world. 
A near relation of the lemurs is a beautiful little 
c 
