Monkeys I Have Met 



it may assume is well shown by the photographs 

 illustrating this chapter. All but that in which 

 the animal is scratching its head were taken from 

 one specimen, "Peter," a former denizen of the 

 London Zoo, and he was not posed in any way. 

 The orang is well known to the natives of Bengal 

 as a showman's animal, and is called " bun manus " 

 (jungle man), just the signification of its Malay 

 name. And as Hanno the Carthaginian called the 

 gorillas he discovered hairy people, hundreds of 

 years ago, so the Indian native appears to doubt 

 whether the orang is not human ; at any rate, I 

 have been asked in the Calcutta Zoo by a native 

 whether an orang on view there was not a man. 



As a testimony to the value of fresh air for 

 animals, I may mention that we did not succeed 

 in getting orangs to thrive in this garden until 

 an outdoor extension was added to their cage. 

 The strange wistful look of the orang's face is 

 borne out by its character. It is less merry and 

 monkeyish than the chimpanzee, and more emo- 

 tional and exacting ; disappointed, it will throw 

 itself on the ground and roll about crying, like 

 a spoilt child. It is also more sluggish than 

 its African relative, and hence more difficult to 

 keep in health, but I should not be surprised if 

 it turned out under careful training to be the 

 superior animal. Two varieties of the orang 



used to be imported to Calcutta, one with a much 



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