LEMURS AND. SUPERSTITION 
mark. Coupled with this habit of biting is a partly 
carnivorous diet. The loris will eat almost anything in 
the way of vegetables, and it is also singularly adroit 
in catching birds. A mixed diet occurs, it will be 
observed, among groups of animals which have some 
claims to be considered archaic; thus, the venerable 
pig tribe is omnivorous. So too the Artoid carnivora, 
which are among the more ancient types of living bears, 
are mixed eaters. The slow loris has many vernacular 
names in the east; among them are “ Bashful Cat,” 
“ Bashful Monkey,” ‘“ Wind Monkey.’ These names 
have all a meaning ; the first two, of course, are plainly 
to be referred to the slow and nocturnal habits of the 
little lmur. The last may be in allusion to its whistling 
note; but perhaps it has been given to it on account 
of the belief among the Chinese sailors that its voice 
presages wind. Much other superstition has gathered 
round this certainly rather weird-looking little Primate. 
Captain Flower has discovered that a general view is 
held in Siam that if a man commits a crime which he 
did not premeditate, some one has “ unbeknownst ”’ 
buried a piece of loris under his threshold. The amount 
of legend which envelops wild animals seems to be in 
some proportion to the singularity of their physiognomy. 
Thus, the singular Madagascar lemur, the Chiromys, 
with its eager eyes and long thin middle finger, is held to 
presage good fortune, if it brings a traveller in the forest 
a pillow and places it under his head. The story re- 
minds one a little of the stone lion who wags its tail 
when it hears the clock strike twelve. The Nycticebus 
tardigradus carries its young one wrapped round its 
body like some other lemurs. It remains there, as do 
the young kangaroos in the pouch, until of large size. 
One wonders whether this habit may not be indeed a 
reminiscence of the earlier presence of a pouch in some 
ancient lemur. 
45 
