4 3 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The food of the orang-outang is strictly a vegetable one. It has the 

 habit of not rising very early in the morning, waiting until the sun has 

 dried the dews, and Nature has dressed herself for its appearance. Al- 

 though the orang does not court danger, it does not seem afraid to 

 fight if necessity obliges. Wallace narrates the combat between a 

 Dyak and an orang, in which the native was terribly bitten and might 

 have been killed had not assistance arrived. The orang was then killed 

 by numbers, and Wallace rescued the skin and head to be added to his 

 large collections, and taken later to England. Mr. Wallace also suc- 

 ceeded in finding a baby orang-outang, and gives his experience with it 

 as follows : 



" When handled or moved it was very quiet and contented, but when laid 

 down by itself it would invariably cry; and for the first few nights was very 

 restless and noisy. I fitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to 

 lie upon, which was changed and washed every day; and I soon found it was 

 necessary to wash the little orang as well. After I had done so a few times it 

 came to like the operation, and as soon as it was dirty would begin crying, and 

 not leave oft* till I took it out and carried it to the spout, when it immediately 

 became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush of the cold wa- 

 ter, and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running over its head. 

 It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly; and when I brushed its hair 

 seemed to be perfectly happy, lying quite still Avith its arms and legs stretched 

 out, while I thoroughly brushed the long hair of its arms and legs. For the 

 first few days it clung desperately with all four hands to whatever it could lay 

 hold of, and I had to be careful to keep my beard out of its way, as its fingers 

 clutched hold of hair more tenaciously than anything else, and it was impossible 

 to free myself without assistance. . . . Finding it so fond of hair, I endeavored 

 to make an artificial mother by wrapping up a piece of buftalo-skin into a 

 bundle and suspending it about a foot from the floor. At first this seemed to 

 suit it admirably, as it could sprawl its legs about and always find some hair. I 

 was now in hopes that I had made the little orphan quite happy ; and so it 

 seemed for some time, till it began to remember its lost parent and try to suck. 

 It would pull itself up close to the skin and try about everywhere for a likely 

 place; but, as it only succeeded in getting mouthfuls of hair and wool, it would 

 be greatly disgusted and scream violently, and after two or three attempts let go 

 altogether." 



This account is interesting, because it shows that in its actions the 

 young orang-outang recalls what we are familiar with in infants ; and 

 again it illustrates the activity of the limbs at an early age and before 

 they can be used intelligently. There can be no doubt that in this 

 way we come to use our limbs at first, by a sort of blind groping in the 

 uncertain light of infancy. We feel a sympathy for Mr. Wallace that 

 his baby orang-outang never w'ould do anything to reflect credit on its 

 bringing-up, and finally died in an obstinate and childish manner. It 

 was thought that it never entirely got over its separation from its 

 family, but this may have been a fancy. 



Another long-armed ape is the gibbon (Hylobates far), which is 

 smaller than the orang-outang and exceedingly intelligent. This spe- 



