Description of an Ourang Outavg. 1 89 



and the clitoris entirely hid ; but on each side of the vnlva 

 there was a flesh-coloured streak where the skin seemed to 

 be softer than that of the other parts. Is this an indication 

 of labia? Two n)amm^ were placed on the breast like 

 those of fcnhales. The bcilv was naturally very large. This 

 animal had neither tail nor callosities. 



Jt was almost entirely covered v.iih a reddish hair, more 

 or less dark in colour, and of various thicknesses on the dif- 

 ferent pans of the body. The colour of the skin was ge- 

 nerally that of slate; but the ears, the eye- lids, the muzzle, 

 the mside of the hands and feet, the mammse, and a longi- 

 tudinal band on the right side of the belly, were of copper- 

 coloured skin. The hair of the head, of the fore-arms and 

 of the legs, was of a deeper red than that of the other parts ; 

 and on the head, the back, and the upper part of the arms 

 it was thicker than any where else : the beliy was but scan- 

 tily supplied with it, and the face still less: the upper lip, 

 the nose, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet 

 alone were bare. The nails were black, and the eyes brown. 

 All the hair was woolly, that of ihe fore-arm grew upwards 

 as did that of the arm downwards to the elbow. The hair 

 of the head, which was harder in general than that of the 

 other parts, grew forward. The skin, but chieflv that of the 

 face, was coarse Hud rough, and that under the neck was so 

 flabby that the animal seemed to have a goitre when lyin-T 

 on its side. 



The ourang outang in question \>as entirely formed for 

 living among trees. When it wanted to ascend a tree, it 

 laid hold of the trunk or l)ranches with its hands and feet, 

 making use of its arms only and not of its thighs as a man 

 would do in smiilar circumstances. It could pass easily 

 from one tree to another when the branches met, so that 

 in a thick lorest li would never be necessary for it to de- 

 scend to the ground, on which it moves wiih considerable 

 difficulty. In general, all its motions are slow, but thev 

 seem to be painful when it is made to walk from one place 

 to another : at first it rests its two hands on the oroiuid, 

 and brings its hinder parts slowly forward until its^feet are 

 between its hands or lore paws j afterwards, supporting; it- 

 self on its hind legs, it advances the uj^per part of its bodv, 

 rests again on its hands as at first, and thus moves forward. 

 It is only when we take it by one hand that it walks on its 

 feet, and in this case it uses its other hand to support it. 

 1 have scarcely ever seen it stand firmly on the sole of the 

 fool; most frequently it only rested on the outer edge, ap- 

 parently desirous of preserving its toes from all friction on 



the 



