Mr Grant's account of' an Orang-Outangfrom Borneo. 19 



a French gentleman, who travelled in Sumatra in the year 

 1 767, there is also a description of an orang, which I do not 

 think I should be justified in overlooking. He was about four 

 feet eight or ten inches (French) high. The resemblance and 

 conformation of the bones of the head altogether struck Mr 

 D'Obsonville as being little different from the same parts in 

 many Tartars and negroes. He had very little beard. His 

 breast was tolerably broad ; his buttocks not very fleshy ; his 

 thighs short, and his legs bowed. These last defects in pro- 

 portion, when compared to ours, are in fact found amongst va- 

 rious people, * and seem to result from their manner of living, 

 from crouching on their hams, and from being carried in their 

 infancy on the backs or hips of their mothers." I have never 

 had an opportunity of seing the erang-outang except crouching 

 or standing, but though, as I was informed, he walks habitual- 

 ly upright, he takes advantage in his state of liberty of hands 

 and feet when he wants to run or leap a ditch. It may be this 

 kind of exercise perhaps which contributes to keep the arms so 

 very long. His genital parts were tolerably proportioned ; his 

 penis, in a quiescent state, about five inches long, appeared to 

 be that of a man without a visible prepuce. 



" I have never (proceeds M. D'Obsonville) seen the female 

 orang-outang, but was informed their breasts were somewhat 

 flat ; that their sexual parts, resembling those of women, were 

 subject to catamenia. The term of their gestation is supposed 

 to be about seven months, which calculation has probably been 

 made from such as have been taken pregnant, for they do not 

 propagate in a state of servitude." 



The following general observations have some claim to at- 

 tention, as founded, it may be presumed, on information pick- 

 ed up by M. D'Obsonville on the spot. H They (orang-ou- 

 tangs,) wander in the woods, or upon mountains of the most 

 difficult access, where they live in small societies, and take every 

 precaution for their subsistence or defence that can be expect- 

 ed from men absolutely savage. Of this I cannot doubt, after 



* Note. — The defect of bowed legs is very apparent among the lower 

 caste of children in this country. It is partly caused by the manner in 

 which they are carried in infancy on the hips of their mothers, or sisters 

 and brothers, and partly by the poorness of their diet. — J. G. 



