Animal: Hairless Lidi
Close Surface Cousin: ???
At The Earth’s Core , Chapter 4
Environment: ???
[quote=“trashHeap, post:10, topic:2551”]
She described the Mahars largely by comparisons. In this way they were like unto thipdars, in that to the hairless lidi.
[/quote]
Note: See the lidi specifically for the diplodocus controversy. Unless clarified by a later chapter or public domain book, I am choosing to assume two lidis; both a hairless and a hairy variety. Otherwise back in “At the Earth’s Core” Chapter 4 Dian said the Pellucidarian equivalent of “Tigers are like bigger more vicious house cats AND furry orangutans” while trying to describe a tiger to someone who never saw one before. (Which is an incredibly stupid way to describe a tiger to someone who has never seen one.)
Also it seems wierd that hairlessness would be David’s take away from a description of a diplodocus, in much the same way that it would be odd for someone to describe a giraffe primarily in terms of it’s spots.
Note too that Dian had never seen a lidi prior to Chapter 15 according to book 1:
> As they drew still nearer we discovered that upon the back of each sat
a human being. Then Dian knew what they were, though she never before
had seen one.
It seems unlikely Dian would describe one creature to a person who had never seen it, in terms of a creature she had never seen. This also implies that the lidi is either famously hairy or the hairless-lidi is famously hairless in some way which emphasizes the fact. (Why else for the name?) (On further reflection maybe not. For refrence, the northern white rhino is not white and as Douglas Adam’s remarks in “Last Chance to See” it is often of a darker hue than other types of rhino. It’s name comes from a mispronunciation/miss-translation from the local name for them which ought to have been translated as “wide rhino” .)