The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 21, November 21, 1840Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 21, November 21, 1840
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
Again we got another, and having heard that he may be at once tamed
by indulging him in whisky, we mixed some in a saucer with sugar, and
dipping his nose into it, he licked his chops, then ventured to make a
lap at the enticing material, and, “startled at the sound himself had
made,” he shrunk in, but came out again presently and lapped away most
eagerly. The spirit soon showed its power, and like other beasts that
indulge in it, he was any thing but himself; and his lacklustre leaden
eye was rendered still less pleasing by its inane drunken expression.
He staggered towards us in a ridiculously get-out-of-my-way sort of
manner; however, he had not gone far before his potation produced all its
effects; he tottered, then fell on his side; he was drunk in the full
sense of the word; he could not even hold by the ground. We could then
pull him about by the feet, open his mouth, twitch his whiskers, &c.:
he was unresisting. There was a strange expression in his face of that
self-confidence which we see in cowards when inspired by drinking. We put
him away, and some twelve hours afterwards found him running about, and,
as was predicted, quite tame, his spines lying so smoothly and regularly
that he could be stroked down the back, and handled freely. We turned him
into the kitchen to kill the cockroaches, and know nothing further of
him.
Having given you so much of his manners, let us turn to his structural
peculiarities. He is a small animal, not much larger than a rat when
stripped of his spines and the muscular apparatus connected with them.
It is this that enables him to roll himself up so as to present a
_chevaux-de-frize_-like defence, impregnable to all ordinary enemies;
and as there is much singularity in it, we will endeavour to describe
it. On the back of the animal, between the skin and ribs, there is a
large oval muscle with thickened edges, partially attached to the skin
and spines. From this spring certain muscular bands, which are fixed
firmly at the other ends to the head, tail, breast, and other parts of
the body. The whole may be likened to a sort of elastic mantle, kept on
the back by straps. When the owner wishes to roll up, he bends his body,
then tightening the straps, he pulls the edge of the elastic mantle
over, which contracting, draws it in as if it were a running string in
a bag; at the same time the spines are fixed rigidly for defence by
the straining of the muscles. There are many other interesting points
in his anatomy. He possesses, as we do, well developed clavicles or
collar-bones, which only exist in a rudimentary form in many quadrupeds.
The peculiarities of his structure have exposed him to much, we will
not say wanton cruelty, as its object was the increase of knowledge;
it therefore should not be heavily censured, while so many unmeaning
barbarities exist under the name of sports. It is stated as a proof of
his endurance, that he has died without a groan under the slow process of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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