 Beliefs about slow lorises and their use in traditional practices are deep @-@ rooted and go back at least 300 years , if not earlier based on oral traditions . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , it was reported that the people from the interior 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 . The following passage from an early textbook about primates is indicative of the superstitions associated with slow lorises : 
