212 THE GAMES OF OBANG-OUTANGS 



them. If he could get the cabin boys to play with he 

 was perfectly happy, but if not (and nobody was looking 

 on) he would put up with the little monkeys, though the 

 games on his side were rather half-hearted. The little 

 fellows, on their part, were much flattered at his notice, 

 and whenever they were let out at once went to wherever 

 their big cousin might be. 



In general the orang-outang took all the strange 

 sights and sounds that met him in his new life very 

 coolly, but eight big turtles that were taken in off the 

 Island of Ascension were too much for his courage. As 

 soon as he caught a glimpse of them he tore up to the 

 highest part of the rigging, uttering a squeak of fear, and 

 though at length his curiosity brought him down low 

 enough to catch a peep of them, nothing would persuade 

 him to come quite close. The only other time that he 

 showed any of the same sort of fear was when he saw 

 white men naked (which was quite new to him) bathing 

 in the sea. 



Many are the stories of pet monkeys, both orang- 

 outangs and other kinds — putting their masters to shame 

 by sitting over their heads in church, while they were 

 preaching, and imitating every movement, till the congre- 

 gation was nearly beside itself with laughter. But per- 

 haps no anecdote ever told about the species shows so 

 much intelligence as one related by an Italian traveller 

 of some orang-outangs who had had no intercourse with 

 man. When tired of the mountain fruits, or there 

 were no more to be had, they would come down 

 to the sea-shore in search of shell-fish and particularly 

 of oysters. Though apparently reckless in many ways, 

 the monkey tribe have really a good deal of caution, and 

 if, as often happened, the oyster shells were a little open, 

 they were afraid of putting in their fingers lest the shell 

 should suddenly close, as with a spring. To prevent this, 

 the orang-outangs kept the two halves open by means of 

 a stone, so that they could enjoy their oyster to their 



