Descriplion of an Oiirang Outaiig. 197 



\\on in the affirmative: for in its passion it would occa- 

 sionally raise its head from the ground and suspend its cries, 

 in order to see if it had produced any effect on the people 

 around, and if they were disposed to yield to ils entreaties : 

 when it thought there was nothing favourable in their looks 

 or gestures, it began crving again. 



This desire for marks of kindness generally led our ourang 

 oulang to search for persons whoiti it knew, and to shun 

 solitude, which seemed to displease it so much that one day 

 it employed its intelligence in a singular way to break loose 

 Irom it. It was shut into a closet adjoining the room 

 where the people of the house usually met: several times it 

 ascended a chair in order to open the door, which it effected, 

 as the chair usuallv stood near the door, which was fastened 

 with a latch. In order to prevent it from repeating this 

 operation, the cliair was removed some distance from the 

 door; but scarcely was it shut when it again opened, and the 

 ourantj outan*;- vias seen descending from the chair, which 

 it had pushed towards the door in order to enable it to 

 reach the latch: Can we refuse to ascribe this action to 

 the faculty of generalizing? It is certain that the animal 

 had never been taught to make use of a chair for opening 

 doors, and it had never even seen any person do so. All 

 that it could learn from its own experience was, that by 

 mounting upon a chair it could raise itself to a level with 

 things that were higher than it; and it may have seen from 

 the actions of others that chairs might be moved from one 

 place to another, and that the door *in question was moved 

 by lifting the latch: but these very ideas are generalizations, 

 and it is onlv by comL-ining them with each other ttiat the 

 animal could have been led to the action which we have 

 related. J do not think that any other animal ever carried 

 the force of reasoning further. To conclude: — men were 

 not the only beings of a different species to which the 

 ourang outang attached itself: it conceived an afleclion for 

 two cats which was sometimes attended with inconvenience : 

 it generally kept one or other under its arm, and at other 

 times it placed them on its head; bat as in these various 

 movements the cais were afraid of falling, they seized with 

 their claws the skin of the ourang outang, which patiently 

 endured the pain which it experieiiced. Twice or thrice 

 indeed it attentively examined their feet, and after disco- 

 verins their nails, it atteiiipled to remove them, but with 

 hs fingers onlv : not being able to accomplish tins object, 

 it seemed resigned to the pain they gave it, rather than 1*6- 

 nouncc the pleasure of toying with the animals. This de.- 

 'N3 sire 



