 Traditional beliefs and uses for slow lorises vary , and many practices appear to have deep roots going back at least 300 years . Oral traditions suggest these practices go back even further . In the late 1800s and early 1900s , it was reported that the people from the interior of the island of Borneo believed that slow lorises were the gatekeepers for the heavens and that each person had a personal slow loris waiting for them in the afterlife . More often , however , slow lorises are used in traditional medicine or to ward off evil . 
