SOUTH AMERICA. 
159 
the end of the tail. He is the most inoffensive of 
all animals, and never injures the property of man. 
He is chiefly found in the inmost recesses of the 
forest, and seems partial to the low and swampy 
parts near creeks, where the troely tree grows. 
There he goes up and down in quest of ants, of 
which there is never the least scarcity; so that he 
soon obtains a sufficient supply of food, with very 
little trouble. He cannot travel fast; man is supe¬ 
rior to him in speed. Without swiftness to enable 
him to escape from his enemies, without teeth, the 
possession of which would assist him in self-defence, 
and without the power of burrowing in the ground, 
by which he might conceal himself from his pur¬ 
suers, he still is capable of ranging through these 
wilds in perfect safety; nor does he fear the fatal 
pressure of the serpent’s fold, or the teeth of the 
famished jaguar. Nature has formed his fore-legs 
wonderfully thick, and strong, and muscular, and 
armed his feet with three tremendous sharp and 
crooked claws. Whenever he seizes an animal with 
these formidable weapons, he hugs it close to his 
body, and keeps it there till it dies through pressure, 
or through want of food. Nor does the ant-bear, 
in the mean time, suffer much from loss of aliment, 
as it is a well-known fact, that he can go longer 
without food than, perhaps, any other animal, ex¬ 
cept the land-tortoise. His skin is of a texture that 
perfectly resists the bite of a dog; his hinder parts are 
protected by thick and shaggy hair, while his im¬ 
mense tail is large enough to cover his whole body. 
THIRD 
JOURNEV. 
