The quatì appears to be of a mongrel breed, for its snout is like that of a barrow-pig, its head like that of a fox, while the rest of its body resembles a middle-sized ape, with a yellow skin, and a tail longer than all the rest of its body, divided into little rings of various colours. Like apes, these animals leap up and down the boughs of trees, on the fruit of which they subsist, though you sometimes meet a numerous herd of them jumping about upon the ground. Even when full grown, they are completely tamed by the Indians, within a few days, but are always destructive to hens, and their eggs, which they delight in. THE AỲ. The last of the different tribes of apes is an animal which, from the slothfulness of its nature, and the slowness of its motions, is called by the Guaranies, aỳ, and by the Spaniards, _la pereza_, the sloth. It is about the size of a fox, and has a small head, a narrow face, smooth nose, little black eyes, and long hair, of the colour of ashes, which spreads over its neck like a mane. It has a dusky streak in the middle of its back, long nails, bent backwards on each foot, a wide mouth, a thick tail, weak teeth, no ears; its appearance, in short, is ridiculous and disagreeable in every point of view. It lives upon the tops of trees, and feeds upon their leaves, and sometimes upon the smaller kinds of ants. It never gets up upon its feet, nor is it ever seen to drink, perhaps content with dew. Slower than any tortoise, it so dreads the slightest motion, that it spends a whole day in creeping up or down a tree. It detests the least drop of rain. Every now and then it pronounces the letter I, like a person groaning. It has a remarkably firm skin; but its flesh is nauseated even by the Indians. From what I have said, you may perceive that this most slothful animal is extremely dissimilar to apes, which spend the whole day in running, leaping, and playing, as if impatient of the shortest respite. The Indians, in travelling, take great delight in the flesh of apes, which, in various countries of America, is the chief and most esteemed food of the Indians. Moreover, many of the Americans have believed apes to possess the power of speech, and to feign themselves dumb, that they may not be obliged to labour by the Spaniards. Whenever an ape is wounded by a bullet, he puts his hand to the wound, as if to prevent his life from being shed with his blood; and when the body is quite lifeless, stiff, and cold, the hand remains in the same situation. I have found, from experience, that their teeth are hurtful and dangerous; for my companion, after being bitten by a mad she ape, was seized with an erysipelas, which spread from the arm to the head, induced a great heat and swelling, and caused terrible, and almost mortal agonies. In European towns I have seen many apes which are not found in any part of Paraguay; for in various countries there is a great variety of apes;