LEMUR. 
l63 
tom of it; but the posture of which he seemed 
fondest was to cling with all four of them to the 
upper wires, his body being inverted ; and in the 
evening he usually stood erect for many minutes, 
playing on the wires with his fingers, and rapidly 
moving his body from side to side, as if he had found 
the utility of exercise in his unnatural state of con- 
finement. A little before day-break, when my early 
hours gave me frequent opportunities of observing 
him, he seemed to solicit my attention ; and if I 
presented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it 
with great gentleness, but eagerly took fruit when I 
offered it, though he seldom ate much at his morn- 
ing repast : when the day brought back his night, 
his eyes lost their lustre and strength, and he com- 
posed himself for a slumber of ten or eleven hours. 
“ III. The names of loris and lemur will, no 
doubt, be continued by the respective disciples of 
Buffon and Linnaeus ; nor can I suggest any other, 
since the Pandits know little or nothing of the ani- 
mal. The lower Hindus of this province generally 
call it lajjabanor, or the bashful ape, and the Mus- 
selmans, retaining the sense of the epithet, give it 
the absurd appellation of a cat : but it is neither a 
cat nor bashful ; for though a Pandit who saw my 
lemur by day-light remarked that it was lajjalu, or 
modest (a word which the Hindus apply to all 
sensitive plants), yet he only seemed bashful, while 
in fact he was dimsighted and drowsy ; for at night, 
as you perceive by his figure, he had open eyes, and 
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