230 ANATOMY OF THE ORAN OTAN. 



something like a hut, not only as a shelter from the 

 heat of the sun, but also as a convenient retreat for 

 the females and their young. They are so courage- 

 ous as to drive elephants away from their haunts ; 

 and defend themselves with sticks, or by throwing 

 stones, when they are enraged. A single man is 

 by no means a match for them. Bosman relates 

 that two negro slaves happened to fall in with seve- 

 ral of these dangerous creatures on the coast of 

 Guinea, when, the apes having overpowered them, 

 they were just on the point of pushing out their eyes 

 with sticks, as a party of negroes came up and res- 

 cued them. 



On dissecting the oran otan, there are many essen- 

 tial distinctions in the internal formation from that 

 of a man, though in some parts the affinity is so 

 great, that their inferiority can only be attributed to 

 the want of reason, or a deficiency in those intellec- 

 tual powers that raise the human race above all other 

 creatures. The tongue and the organs of the voice 

 are similar; yet the oran otan is dumb. In the 

 appearance and arrangement of the brain no differ- 

 erence can be perceived; but the oran otan is irra- 

 tional. Buffon concludes from these circumstances, 

 that mind does not depend upon any conforma- 

 tion of matter, but is of a nature superior and inde- 

 pendent. 



