LEM 
47 G 
this fpecies, as its hiftory hitherto has been very obfcure. 
€eba del’cribes it by the name at Jlying cat of Ternate ; he 
fays it flies quick, but very low, like our bats, making 
circles when in quell: of food. His defcription is correct, 
but his defign does not (how the lingular conformation of 
the fingers. It inhabits the illands of the Indian Ocean, 
Guzerat, the Moluccas, the Philippines, and the Pelews. 
In Keate’s account of the Pelew Illands, the following 
paffage feems to relate to this animal: “While feated 
with the king, they law a flying fox in a tree near them. 
Captain Wilton’s fervant, being juft returned from hunt¬ 
ing, Ihot it with his mulket. This animal refembles our 
bat, but is five or fix times as large; it has a head like a 
fox, and it Itinks like one; the natives call it oleck. It 
runs along the ground, and climbs trees like a cat; and 
it has wings, which it ftretches out, and flies like a bird. 
•It is reckoned delicate food by the inhabitants.” 
This animal is eleven inches in length from the tip of 
the muzzle to the letting-on of the tail. The head is like 
that of the maucauco; but the l'nout is more arched; the 
eyes are large, and far apart; the ears are fmall and na¬ 
ked, of an oval lhape, and black; the nofe is black. The 
arms are very long and thin, and the lower part almoft 
naked; the reft covered with hair; the fingers are five in 
number, an inch long. The thighs are almoft bare, but 
the legs are covered with hair; there are five toes on each 
foot, fimilar to the fingers on the hands. The tail is not 
fo long as the body and head. The membrane inclofes 
and adheres to the arms, legs, and tail ; comes firft from 
the chin to the nails of the fingers; then to the toe-nails, 
and covers the tail to the very tip. The hair upon the 
head, back, and outlide of the membrane, is fmooth, and 
of a ftrong deep red; on the brealh belly, and arms, it is 
lighter, and rather curled. The inner part of the flying 
membrane is almoft bare; but there is a tranfverfe line 
near the elbow quite covered with hair. See the Plate, 
fig- T 
This animal, by its faculty of (hftaining itfelf in the air, 
bears a certain refemblance to the bat and the flying 
fquirrel. They differ from the latter, and approach to 
the former, by their broad membrane prefenting a greater 
i'urface to the air; for the fquirrel only glides as it were ; 
but this maucauco abfolutely flies like a bird, according 
-to captain Wilfon; and turns round in the air, from Se- 
ba’s account. But it is probable that its flight is not fo 
firm as the bat’s, fince thefe have genuine wings, or fails, 
formed by a membrane which inclofes their long front 
claws, and gives them a facility of ftriking the air in every 
direction, and of moving with great velocity; whereas the 
flying maucauco, having head, hands, and feet, and tail, 
nil enclofed in the membrane, cannot certainly perform 
.fuch varied evolutions; it is probable that their move¬ 
ments are by jumps, between the gliding of the l’quirrels 
and the flying of the bat. What confirms this, is that 
-the membrane of the flying fquirrel is covered with hair 
outlide and infide; the maucauco has it covered with hair 
on the outfide only, being almoft naked within; but the 
Jlying membrane of the bat is entirely naked. Now it 
has been lately dif'covered, (fee the article Vespertilio,) 
that bats, when deprived of fight, can not only fly ftraight, 
but even avoid obltacles which lie in their way ; and it 
appears to us, that this faculty may partly be attributed 
to the nakednefs of their wings, which are doubtlels en¬ 
dued with a nice'fenfe of feeling; which lenfe we fuppole 
to be duller in the flying maucauco, and not to exift at all 
in the flying fquirrel. 
15. Lemur variegatus, the variegated flying maucauco: 
this is not above half the fize of the former; the head is 
thicker in proportion, and not fo long. The hair is of a 
darker colour, but variegated with feveral different (hades, 
and marked with white fpots. It is given by Geoffroy as 
a new fpecies, but may be only a young one of the pre¬ 
ceding. It is about fix inches long, exclufive of the tail; 
the head is larger, and the limbs (horter, in proportion to 
, : the thicknefe of the body, than the preceding. The up- 
L E N 
per furface and membrane are dark brown ; the limbs 
fpotted with white; the under parts of a brownilh grey. 
LEMURA'LIA. See Lemuria. 
LEM'URES,_/. pL [Latin.] Evil fpirits: 
In confecrated earth, 
And on the holy hearth, 
The lars and lemures moan with midnight plaint. Milton . 
The lemures are the fame with the larva, which the an¬ 
cients imagined to wander round the world, to frighten 
good people, and plague the bad. For which reafon at 
Rome they had ^lemuria, or feafts inllituted to appeafe the 
manes of the defunfr. See Lars. 
Apuleius explains the ancient notion of manes thus: 
The fouls of men releafed from the bands of the body, 
and freed from performing their bodily funftions, became 
a kind of demons or genii, formerly called lemures. Of 
thefe lemures, thofe that were kind to their families were 
called lares familiares-, but thofe who, for their crimes, 
were condemned to wander continually, without meeting 
with any place of reft, and terrified good men, arid hurt 
the bad, are vulgarly called larva. 
An ancient commentator on Horace mentions, that the 
Romans wrote lemures for remures ; which laft word was 
formed from Remus, who was killed by his brother Ro¬ 
mulus, and who returned to the earth to torment him. 
But Apuleius obferves, that in the ancient Latin tongue 
lemures (ignifies the foul of a man feparated from the body 
by death. 
LEMU'RTA, or Lemura'lia, a feaft folemnized at 
Rome on the 9th of May, to pacify the manes of the 
dead, or in honour of the lemures. It was inllituted by 
Romulus, to appeafe the ghoft of his murdered brother 
Remus, which he thought was continually purfuing him 
to revenge the horrid crime. The name lemuria is there¬ 
fore fuppofed to be a corruption of Remuria, i.e. the feaft 
of Remus. Sacrifices continued for three nights, the 
temples were (hut up, and marriages were prohibited dur¬ 
ing the folemnity. A variety of whimfical ceremonies 
were performed, magical words made ufe of, and the 
gholts defired to withdraw, without endeavouring to hurt 
or affright their friends above ground. The chief forma¬ 
lities were ablution, putting black beans into their mouths, 
and beating kettles and pans, to make the goblins keep 
their diltance. 
LEN, a river of England, in the county of Kent, which 
runs into the Medway near Maidftone. 
LE'NA, a river of Rulfia, which rifes in a morafs, fitu- 
ated in lat. 50. 20. N. Ion. 108. 14. E. in the government 
oflrkutlk; paffes by Vercholenlk, Tutura, Kirenlk, Vi- 
timlkoi, Olekminlk, Yakutlk, Ziganik, See. and runs into 
the Frozen Ocean in lat. 73. N. Ion. 119. 14. E. 
LE'NA, a harbour on the weft coalt of Mindanao in 
lat. 6. 42. N. Ion. 123 . 12. E. 
LEN^E'A, a feftival kept by the Greeks in honour of 
Bacchus, (who had the furnatne of Lenasus, from 
a wine-prels,) at which there w’as much feafting and Bac¬ 
chanalian jollity, accompanied with poetical contentions, 
and the exhibition of tragedies. The poor goat was ge¬ 
nerally facrificed on the occalion, and treated with vari¬ 
ous marks of cruelty and contempt, as being naturally 
fond of browling on the vine-lhoots. 
LENA'TO, a town of Italy, in the department of the 
Olona : five miles fouth of Milan. 
LENBERAN', a town of Perfian Armenia: 168 miles 
eaft of Erivan. 
LENCH-CHURCH, a village in Worcefterfhire, Be¬ 
tween Lench-Rowfe and Lench-Wick, north of Evefliam, 
fituated on a hill, with an extenfive profpeft into War- 
wicklhire. Near it are the villages of Lench-Shreeve, 
Aft-Lench, and Habbe-Lench. 
LENCK'ERSHEIM, a town of Germany, in the prin¬ 
cipality of Culmbach : three miles eaft of Windlheim. 
LENCLOI'STRE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Vienne.: fourteen miles north of Poitiers. 
L’ENCLO'S, 
