ay a third time, and stayed all night, not bringing home
any wood at all, saying that the trees which he had cut down were so
heavy that he could not bring them all the way. Then he went and stayed
two days and nights, which made his wife very unhappy. She cried very
much, intreated him not to leave her, promised not to scold or beat him
any more, and to live contentedly in the kitchen; but he answered 'No!
you made me go to the bush, now I like the bush very much, and I shall
go and stop there for ever.' So saying, he rushed out of the cook-house
into the bush, where he turned into a monkey, and from him came all
other monkeys."

BATS.

A race of beings, to which the epithet mysterious may be with some truth
applied, affords more interest from its peculiar habits, than from any
proof which can be given of its mental powers; and its place in this
work is due to the marvellous histories which have been related
concerning it, and which have made it an object of superstitious alarm.

Bats, or Cheiroptera, are particularly distinguished from all other
creatures which suckle their young, by possessing the power of flight. A
Lemur Galeopithecus, which exists in the Eastern part of the globe,
takes long sweeps from tree to tree, and owes this faculty to the
extension of its skin between its fore and hind limbs, including the
tail; but it cannot be really said to fly. The Bats, then, alone enjoy
this privilege; and the prolongation of what, in common parlance, we
should call the arms and fingers, constitutes the framework which
supports the skin, or membrane forming the wings. The thumbs, however,
are left free, and serve as hooks for various purposes. The legs, and
tail (when they have any), generally help to extend the membrane of the
wing; and the breast-bone is so formed as to support the powerful
muscles which aid their locomotive peculiarities. They climb and crawl
with great dexterity, and some will run when on the ground; but it is
difficult for most of them to move on a smooth, horizontal surface, and
they drag themselves along by their thumbs. A portion of the Cheiroptera
feeds on insects, and another on fruits; one genus subsists chiefly on
blood. The first help to clear the atmosphere of those insects which fly
at twilight; the second are very destructive to our gardens and
orchards; the last are especially the object of that superstitious fear
to which I have already alluded. They are all nocturnal or cre