96 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



The orangs live in couples in the most secluded parts 

 of the forest, and are never active, like the chimpanzees, 

 but sit all day with their legs round a branch, their heads 

 forward in the most uncomfortable attitude, occasionally 

 uttering mournful sounds. When pursued they climb 

 slowly up a tree, and at night sleep in the huts built to 

 cover their young, of which they are very careful, and 

 whose wants they supply Avith almost human tenderness 

 and devotion. When taken young they are susceptible 

 of taming and domesticating, like the chimpanzee, but 

 as they grow older they become cross and violent, and, 

 curiously enough, the forehead — prominent in the adult 

 — becomes retreating in later years. 



After waiting some days without seeing any orangs, 

 my native guide advised our going away from the river, 

 deeper into the unbroken forest ; and this we did, a two 

 days' march. . One morning, just as I had killed and was 

 examining a queer wild pig, I heard a rustling in the 

 leaves over my head, and looking up, was paralyzed with 

 surprise to see, some twenty-five or thirty feet above me, 

 an enormous orang-outang quietly seated on a tamarind 

 branch, watching me and grinding his teeth. My porter 

 was making me elaborate signals of distress, which Thurs- 

 day translated into advice to shoot the beast, who was old 

 and fully grown, with my explosive-ball rifle. 



" He says he is an evil one," added Thursday, " and 

 that the old orangs are very dangerous and will attack a 

 man at sight." 



