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THE STORY OF THE SLOTH. 
The life of the sloth is a very uneventful one, for, as it feeds upon the 
leaves of trees, an abundant supply of food is always within its reach, and 
it is not, therefore, obliged to search for provisions like most other animals. 
Then, again, its curious habits place it out of the reach of beasts of prey, 
and, indeed, almost the only foes which the animal has to fear is the serpents, 
which, of course, can follow it into its leafy retreat and overcome it with¬ 
out difficulty. 
The sense of hearing m these animals seems but imperfectly developed; 
and their small, dull and reddish eyes do not appear capable of very acute 
vision. Indeed, on first observing a sloth its eyes look so devoid of bright¬ 
ness as to give the impression that the creature must be blind. 
But a single young is produced at a birth. When it first comes into the 
world the young sloth is fully developed, having the body thickly clothed 
with hair, and the claws on the toes of the same proportionate length as in 
the adult With these claws it clings fast to the long hair of its mother, 
clasping its arms around her neck. 
It is gifted with great tenacity of life, surviving under injuries which 
would have proved instantly mortal to any other animal. It even surpasses 
the opossum in endurance. 
A friend of mine had a sloth which he kept in his house for some time. 
The animal usually lived on the back of a chair to which it slung itself by its 
curved claws. After keeping it for some time, he was desirous of killing 
it, as its skin was required for the purpose of stuffing, and the death warrant 
was issued against the sloth. But how to kill it was the difficulty; and its 
owner, being a naturalist, and, therefore, a merciful man, in spite of popular 
prejudices on the subject, was much perplexed in his mind. At last he 
determined on trying the effect of the wourali poison, used by the Indians 
to give their weapons of war and the chase a more deadly effect. Even a 
sloth could not resist the wourali. A very small wound was made through 
the animal’s skin, and inoculated with the poison. Soon the sloth began 
to droop, its head sunk upon one side, and, after a few minutes, one of its 
feet lost its hold of the chair on which it was hanging. The other foot 
soon gave way under the influence of the poison, and the dying animal fell 
to the ground. It lay there perfectly quiet, and, after a few minutes had 
elapsed, gently closed its eyes, and was dead. Its whole demeanor was that 
of an animal overcome with sleep, and it never appeared to suffer the 
slightest pain. 
Such, indeed, seems to be the effect of this singular composition upon 
