THE LEOPARD. 169 



paws without shewing his nails, always refusing the 

 /avender-water till he had drawn them back again ; 

 and in a short time he never, on any occasion, pro- 

 truded his claws when offering me his paw. We lay 

 eight weeks in the river Gaboon, where he had plenty 

 of excellent food, but was never suffered to leave his 

 cage, on account of the deck being always filled with 

 black strangers, to whom he had a very decided aver- 

 sion, although he was perfectly reconciled to white 

 people. His indignation, however, was constantly 

 excited by the pigs, when they were suffered to run 

 past his cage ; and the sight of one of the monkeys 

 put him in a complete fury. While at anchor in the 

 before-mentioned river, an ourang-outan (Simia Sai- 

 grus) was brought for sale, and lived three days on 

 board ; and I shall never forget the uncontrollable 

 rage of the one, or the agony of the other, at this 

 meeting. The ourang-outan was about three feet 

 high, and very powerful, in proportion to his size ; 

 so that when he fled with extraordinary rapidity from 

 the panther to the further end of the deck, neither 

 men nor things remained upright when they opposed 

 his progress : there he took refuge in a sail, and al- 

 though generally obedient to the voice of his master, 

 force was necessary to make him quit the shelter of 

 its folds. As to the panther, his back rose in an 

 ferch ; his tail was elevated, and perfectly stiff ; his 

 eyes flashed, and, as he howled, he shewed his huge 

 teeth : then, as if forgetting the bars before him, he 

 tried to spring on the ourang-outan, t< tear him to 



