12 Mr Grants account of an Orang-Outang from Borneo, 



his feet only, and attempting to walk upright. Losing his 

 balance, he throws himself upon his head, and thus frequently 

 advances by performing a few somersets in the direction of the 

 place he is making for. Generally he keeps in a sitting pos- 

 ture. When he gets tired for a time of that, he springs up, 

 takes an upright walk round his box, leaps into it, lolls at his 

 ease, draws his blanket round him, bites the corner of it, 

 takes up a straw, looks contemplatively at it, tears it with his 

 fingers, bites it, throws it away, jumps out of his box again, 

 and, as a sailor hauls at a rope, drags the box by the chain to 

 some other spot. In this way, if permitted, he would move 

 all round the room or court-yard very soon.* 



Monkeys in general evince much surprise on seeing them- 

 selves in a looking-glass. Our Homo sylvestris, however, ex- 

 hibits no emotion whatever at the reflection of his own rueful 

 countenance. This is rather remarkable, considering the cu- 

 riosity that he exhibits upon any other point. Were the mir- 

 ror small enough, it would in all likelihood undergo as usual 

 the eocperimentum dentis. Not finding it possible to do so, 

 the looking-glass is soon laid down by our orang as unworthy 

 of farther speculation. 



He appears to know himself by the name of " Maha Rajah" 

 (as he is always called,) raising his head and turning round 

 when so addressed. He seems also to understand what is 

 said as to giving him food. His plantains are kept by the 

 bearers, who live, as already stated, in a shed close to his box ; 

 and when his master calls to " Maha Rajah," from the veran- 

 dah of an upper room, the creature evidently shows he com- 

 prehends that the call is to him, for he goes forward in the 

 direction whence he is hailed and looks up in his face ; but 

 when Mr Swinton calls to the bearers to give Maha Rajah a 

 plantain, he always turns towards the quarter from which he 

 expects it. 



* The animal when on board ship during the voyage from Singapore 

 was generally allowed to go at large with the chain about his neck, 

 which from its length encumbered his motions, he would therefore take 

 it in his hand or hind foot, carefully disentangling it if it got foul of 

 any of the ropes. The chain, however, prevented his ascending high 

 in the rigging, but he used to go up a short way, and with one hand 

 laying hold of the end of a loose rope, would amuse himself by swinging 

 backwards and forwards. — Note by Mr M . 



