THE GAMES OF OBANG-OUTANGS 207 



when it was seven months old, most likely finding the 

 climate too cold for it. Her appetite was very good, and 

 she was seldom known to refuse anything offered to her; but 

 her favourite food was carrots, parsley, and strawberries. 

 Still, she would accept meat, fish and eggs, which sbe ate 

 very neatly, and was very fond of wine, particularly of 

 Malaga, sometimes drinking a whole bottle at a sitting. 

 During the voyage this clever little lady would make her 

 own bed as well as any housemaid, first shaking up the 

 hay and then getting it all smooth before arranging the 

 bed clothes. 



Another of the tribe which was brought from Borneo 

 about forty years later, seems to have been stronger, and 

 to have had a longer life. His captors did not know any- 

 thing about orang-outangs, and instead of leaving him 

 loose on board the ship, where he would have been per- 

 fectly happy, they cooped him up in a cage. However, 

 like other prisoners, he managed by cunning and per- 

 severance, to break through his bars, and ran joyfully up 

 to the top to the mast-head, but by-and-by hunger 

 brought him down, and he was chained up to a strong 

 stake. But one is not a monkey for nothing, and the 

 knot which fastened the chain to the staple was soon 

 undone, and flinging the chain round his shoulder, and 

 taking the end in his mouth, he was off again to his place 

 of refuge. 



At last they decided that he had better be left alone, 

 and then there was no end to the games he had with the 

 sailors. None of them could run up the rigging as far as 

 he, or if by good luck or a trick one of them did catch 

 him up, it was nothing for him to fling himself across to 

 a rope hanging thirty feet away ; and let the sailors shake 

 the rope as hard as they could his wrists never gave way. 



Voyages in those days were very slow, and there was 

 plenty of time to play. Besides, the ships often waited some 

 time at the various ports to take in fresh provisions, and 

 how thankful everybody must have been to get on shore 



