AYE-AYE. 
243 
of the trap, unless one of those versed in the aye-aye mysteries, who know the 
charm by which to counteract its evil power, smears fat over it, thus securing its 
forgiveness and goodwill, and sets it free.” 
Another account was published in the following year by the Rev. G. A. Shaw, 
also a resident in Madagascar, and since it differs somewhat from the preceding, 
which it supplements in some other respects, it may be likewise quoted. Mr. Shaw 
starts by stating, in opposition to Mr. Baron, that the name of the creature is derived 
from hay ! hay! the Malagasy exclamation of surprise; the animal being known 
to the natives as the Haikay (pronounced Hayekaye). Be its origin what it may, 
there is thus full testimony that the name by which we know the creature is sub¬ 
stantially the same as that by which it is known in its native land. 
“ Being a nocturnal animal,” Mr. Shaw continues, “ it is very difficult to get any 
reliable information concerning its habits in the wild state, and native reports are 
altogether contradictory with respect to these matters. Even with reference to its 
natural food no satisfactory explanation can be obtained from the people. Many 
assert positively that it lives on honey; but one I had in captivity would not eat 
honey in any form, either strained or in the comb, or mixed with various things I 
thought he might have a fancy for. Others say it lives on fruits and leaves; others 
that birds and eggs are its natural food. I fancy from what I saw of my captive 
that both these conjectures are nearer the truth; for after a few days, during which 
it would eat nothing, and it was thought that the proper food had not been offered 
(but it was in reality pining or sulking), it took several fruits which I was able to 
procure for it. It liked bananas; but it made sorry efforts at eating them, its teeth 
being so placed that its mouth was clogged with them. The small fruits of various 
native shrubs it also devoured, as also rice boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar; 
but meat, larvae, moths, beetles, and eggs it would not touch. But I noticed that 
when I came near its cage with a light, it almost invariably started and went for a 
little distance in chase of the shadows of the pieces of bananas attached to the wire- 
work in front of its cage; and I think that if I could have procured some small 
birds it would have, if not devoured them, at any rate killed them for their blood, 
as some lemurs are known to do. It drank water occasionally, but in such a way 
as to make it highly probable that it does not drink from streams or pools in the 
ordinary way. It did not hold its food in its hands as the lemurs which I have 
had in captivity have done, but merely used its hands to steady it on the bottom 
of the cage. But whenever it had eaten, although it did not always clean its hands, 
it invariably drew each of its long claws through its mouth, as though, in the 
natural state, these had taken a chief part in procuring its food. 
“ In some accounts, given by different writers, the haikay is said to be easily 
tamed, and to be inoffensive. ... In each of these qualities, I have found, both from 
native accounts, and from the specimen I have kept, that exactly the reverse is the 
case. It is very savage, and, when attacking, strikes with its hands with anything 
but a slow movement. As might be imagined in a nocturnal animal, its move¬ 
ments in the daytime are slow and uncertain; and it may be said to be inoffensive 
then. When it bit at the wire-netting in the front of its cage, I noticed that each of 
the pair of incisors in either jaw could separate sufficiently to admit the thick wire 
even down to the gum, the tips of the teeth then standing a considerable distance 
