Lanning, George (1911) Wild Life in China: or, Chats on Chinese Birds and Beasts, The National Review Office, p. 253

Passing through southern Kansu we stopped for some days south of Pikow, at the edge of the limestone wall which bars the way into what is geographically Tibet. This magnificent country of huge bald cliffs alternating with densely forested slopes harbours a good deal of genuine big game–musk-deer, mountain-sheep, and Budorcas, all of which I found the spoor of, besides several semi-fabulous monsters which became known to us chiefly through local tradition. The most curious of these possibly fictitious beasts, which were spoken of quite seriously by the natives, was a medium-sized animal with long red hair, which lived on monkeys! (Incidentally this goes to show that there are monkeys as far north as this in western China, thought they probably do not extend north of the main watershed between the Yangtze and the Yellow River.) But though the zoologist may be inclined to scoff (I am inclined to think however that no man with any real scientific knowledge and training would scoff) at native reports, yet as a matter of fact in almost every case in which the hunters told us of the existence of uncouth animals, they were able to make good their words, much to the astonishment of our leader, who had apparently never heard of any other wild animals than pigs and deer; moreover, the traveller in far western China will be shown skins that probably no zoologist in Europe could place, and there was shown us at least a skin to bolster up the claim of the monkey-eater to scientific recognition. Here then is a magnificent chance for someone who has time and money, not to mention skill and patience, to investigate the identity of this curious animal, the existence of which I am ready to guarantee without upholding any of the popular stories as to its habits. If it does really live on monkeys it is presumbly an arboreal animal, and the name "sloth" comes instinctively to one's mind; but a carnivorous sloth would be a curiousity indeed! Can it be a giant vampire? These ranges of south-western Kansu and northern Szechwan stretching away to the Great Snowy Mountains which form the rim of the grassland plateau beyond Sung-pan, would repay close investigation; but such investigation is naturally a considerable undertaking in a country of such distances and difficulty, for these forested mountains may be put down as uninhabited for many hundreds of square miles.

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