ANIMALS. 415 



peculiar to themselves, or as if they liad been paid, like our 

 rope-dancers, to divert the company. Sometimes, suspended 

 by one arm, they poise themselves, and then turn all of a sudden 

 rouriil about a rojie, with as much quickness as awheel, or a sling 

 put into motion. Sometimes holding the rope successively with 

 their long fingers, and, letting their whole body fall into the air, 

 they run full speed from one end to the other, and come back 

 again with the same swiftness. There is no posture but they 

 imitate, nor motion but they perform, bending themselves like a 

 bow, rolling like a bowl, hanging by the hands, feet, and teeth, 

 according to the different fancies with which their capricious im- 

 agination supplies them. But what is still more amazing than 

 all, is their agility to fling themselves from one rope to another, 

 though at thirty, forty, and fifty feet distance." 



Such are the habitudes and the powers of the smaller class of 

 these extraordinary creatures ; but we are presented with a very 

 different picture in those of a larger stature and more muscular 

 form. The little animals we have been describing, which are 

 seldom found above four feet high, seem to partake of the nature 

 of dwarfs among the human species, being gentle, assiduous, 

 and playful, rather fitted to amuse than terrify. But the gigan- 

 tic races of the oran-outang, seen and described by travellers, are 

 truly formidable, and in the gloomy forests, where they are only 

 fdond, seem to hold undisputed dominion. Many of these are 

 as tall or taller than a man ; active, strong, and intrepid ; cun- 

 ning, lascivious, and cruel. This redoubtable rival of mankind 

 is found in many parts of Africa, in the East Indies, in Mada- 

 gascar, and in Borneo.' In the last of these places the people of 

 quality course him as we do the stag ; and this sort of hunting 

 is one of the favourite amusements of the king himself. This 

 creature is extremely swift of foot, endowed with extraordinary 

 strength, and runs with prodigious celerity. His skin is all hairy, 

 his eyes sunk in his head, his countenance stern, his face tanned, 

 and all his lineaments, though exactly human, harsh and black- 

 ned by the sun. In Africa this creature is even still more for- 

 midable. Battel calls him the potujo, and assures us that in all 

 his proportions he resembles a man, except that he is much 

 larger, even to a gigantic state. His face resembles that of a 

 man, the eyes deep sunk in the head, the hair on each side ex- 



1 1,0 Cuuipte's History of Cliiuii. 



