Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-02-06
Ghildren's department.
A LONG TONGUE.

Would you not think yours was 81 long
tongue, if it was as long as your body? Well,
odd as it seems, there is little fellow who
lives in Africa, with just such tongue, and
you can't imagine how useful it is to him.
You see he is dignifed, slow-moving little
fellow, and he lives on insects and such lively
game. He could never catch them, and
might starve to death, only that he can dart
out his tongue, as quick as a flash, and as
long as his body. The end of this droll wea'
pom is sticky, and holds fast any unfortunate
bug or fly it touches.
The little animal I speak of is a Chame-
leon, and his tongue isn't the only droll thing
about him. His eyes are very curious. To
begin with, they are very large and round,
and stick out like big beads on the side Of
his head. And the funniest thing is, that he
can turn them different ways, so as to see all
around him. He can turn one up and the
other down, or he can turn one forward and
the other back, and thus see everywhere. 1t
must be very small bug which can escape
these sharp eyes.
And that isn't all about them. These eyes
are covered with eyelids all the time. To be
sure there is hole in the middle, where the
bright eye looks out, and he can contract or
expand it, as he likes, but he can't uncover
his eyes as we can.
But his tongue and his eyes are not the only
odd things about him-his feet are droll as
the rest. He has FIVE toes, just as you have,
though they are more like birds claw than
like your toes. They are all long and have
claws on the ends, and then they are fastened
together by skin in curious way. Three Of
them are fastened into one sort of bundle,
and the other two into another.
You can see how nicely this arrangement
enables him to hold on to the branches of
trees, where he lives. All four of his feet are
fixed the same way. And, as if four such
hands and feet we're not enough, his long,
slim tail is as good as another foot. He can
curl it around branch as a monkey can his,
and hold on with it. Even when he walks
on the ground-which he don't much like to
do-he steadies himself with this useful tail.
Everything about this fellow is odd. His
skin is not fastened tight to him, as it is to
most animals. 1t is more like loose bag,
and he can swell it out into queer shapes, or
rather in shapeless match, by filling it with
air. And another oddity about the skin is,
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ing matter, he sometimes looks one color, and
sometimes another, according to the way the
light strikes him. 1t is something like what
you have seen in changeable silks.
Strange stories were told about this curious
little fellow, in old times. 1t was really be-
lieved that he had no regular color of his
own, but that he took the color of the thing
he was near, being green among the leaves
and brown on the ground. That error was
caused, of course, by the changes of color |
spoke Of.
Another error was the effect of his curious
habit of blowing himself up like a bladder.
1t was said that he had no particular shape.
In fact, he had no character of his own any
way-neither color or shape!
The wisest men of old times believed these
stories, and it seems droll enough to read Of
it in serious, wise books. Even the name of
the honest little fellow got to mean one who
changes his opinions to suit everybody and
has no fixed ideas of his own.
You see it has taken hundreds of years,
and hundreds of men watching them, to find
out about these curious little fellows and you
can learn all in five minutes Christian
Tb;on