18 ® 
GUIANA MANATf. 
that it delights in music. A governor of Nicaragua 
is said to have kept one of tnem in a lake near his 
house, for six-and-twenty years. The animal was 
usually fed with bread, and fragments of victuals, 
as fish are fed in a pond. He became so familiar, 
that in tameness and docility he nearly equalled 
what has been said by the ancients of their 
dolphin. The domestics gave him the name of 
Matto ; and when any of them came at the regular 
hour to feed him, and called him by his 3 name, he 
Would come immediately to the shore, take victuals 
out of their hands, and, (though contrary to what 
is generally said of these creatures,) even crawl up 
to the house to receive it. Here he would play 
with the servants and children ; and, according 
to the writer of the account, has even been known 
to carry persons across the lake on his back. From 
circumstances similar to these, some authors have 
imagined this to be the dolphin of the ancients ; 
and others believe that what has been written re- 
specting mermaids and syrens, should be referred 
to this animal. 
The flesh and fat of the round-tail manati 
are very white, sweet, and salubrious. The young 
are extremely tender and delicious. The thicker 
parts oT the skin, cut into slips, and dried, be- 
come very tough, and are used for whips. The 
thinner parts, which are more pliant, serve the 
Indians as thongs for fastening the sides of their 
canoes. 
Guiana manati. 
This is a ffative of Guiana, inhabiting the large 
rivers, as well as the sea ; and grows to the length 
of sixteen or eighteen feet ; the skin is of a dark 
brown, with scattered hairs on it. The head hangs 
downward ; the feet have five toes ; the body 
