THE OURANG OUTANG. 189 



Manners of an ourang outang on ship-board. 



hold of what was put on their plate ; and readily 

 drank wine and other liquors. When they 

 wanted any thing, they easily made themselves 

 understood hy the cabin-boy; and when he re- 

 fused to attend, they became enraged, seized him 

 by the arm, bit, and threw him down. The male 

 was seized with sickness, and was attended by 

 the people as if he had been a human being. 

 He was even bled twice in the right arm, and, 

 whenever afterwards he found himself in the 

 same condition, he held out his ami, as if he re- 

 collected formerly receiving benefit from that 

 operation. 



Two of these animals were sent from the forests 

 of the Carnatic, by a coasting vessel, as a present 

 to the governor of Bombay. They were scarcely 

 two feet high, but walked erect, and had, very 

 nearly, the human form. Their actions also were 

 strongly imitative, and they seemed, by their 

 constant melancholy to regret the loss of their 

 liberty. The female was taken ill during the 

 voyage, and died ; and the male, after exhibiting 

 every demonstration of grief, obstinately refused 

 to eat, and lived only a few days. 



Guat informs us, that he saw a very extraordi- 

 nary female ape at Java. " She was very tall/' 

 says he, " and often walked on her hind feet. 

 Except on the eye-brows, there was no hair on 

 her face, which nearly resembled the grotesque 

 female faces I had seen among the Hottentots at 



