I THE ORANG 55 



probably derived by Dr. Miiller from the reports 

 of -his Dyak hunters; but a large male, four feet 

 high, lived in captivity, under his observation, 

 for a month, and receives a very bad character. 



" He was a very wild beast," says Miiller, " of 

 prodigious strength, and false and wicked to the 

 last degree. If any one approached he rose up 

 slowly with a low growl, fixed his eyes in the 

 direction in which he meant to make his attack, 

 slowly passed his hand between the bars of his 

 cage, and then extending his long arm, gave a 

 sudden grip usually at the face." He never 

 tried to bite (though Orangs will bite one another), 

 his great weapons of offence and defence being his 

 hands. 



His intelligence was very great; and Miiller 

 remarks that though the faculties of the Orang 

 have been estimated too highly, yet Cuvier, had 

 he seen this specimen, would not have considered 

 its intelligence to be only a little higher than that 

 of the dog. 



His hearing was very acute, but the sense of 

 vision seemed to be less perfect. The under lip 

 was the great organ of touch, and played a very 

 important part in drinking, being thrust out like 

 a trough, so as either to catch the falling rain, or 

 to receive the contents of the half cocoa-nut shell 

 full of water with which the Orang was supplied, 

 an I which, in drinking, he poured into the trough 

 thus formed. 



