THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC APES. 473 



have reached Europe have not exceeded four feet in height. The 

 Orang has short and feeble lower limbs ; but his arms, on the con- 

 trary, are very robust, and of such a length that he can touch the 

 ground while standing upright a posture, however, which is neither 

 natural nor convenient for him. His ordinary mode of locomotion 

 consists in passing from one tree to another by swinging himself from 

 branch to branch, his progress being as rapid as that of a swift horse, 

 and his agility not less wonderful than that of our Leotards and Blon- 

 dins. His body is covered with coarse reddish hair, whose shade varies 

 according to his age. It is thick on the head, shoulders, and body, 

 but thin about the fore-parts. The face has a bluish cast, and is 

 partty naked ; but the eyes sink under bushy, prominent eye-brows, 

 and the upper lip, chin, and cheeks are garnished with a sort of longish 

 beard. Naked are the exterior face and palm of the hands. Where 

 the skin is deprived of hair, its colour is of a hodden gray. 



The Orang-Outang has a large protuberant belly, a flat nose, small 

 ears, projecting muzzle, long, thin, and very extensible lips. In 

 youth the forehead projects ; but as the creature grows older, it 

 becomes depressed at the same time that the face lengthens ; the face 

 assumes a more decided bestial type ; and the intelligence, lively and 

 quick at first, declines into obtuseness and atrophy. The head inclines 

 forward ; the neck is short, thick, and seemingly afflicted with goitre, 

 which is due to the presence of the pouch called thyroidiari. This 

 pouch, placed above the sternum, extends beneath the arm-holes, and 

 communicates with the larnyx. When expanded, it is capable of 

 receiving a great quantity of air, which, being afterwards expelled 

 very slowly, and passing anew through the vocal organ, produces a dull 

 and prolonged murmur. 



The Orangs have now disappeared from Continental India, and 

 even, we are assured, from Java, so that their chief habitats at pre- 

 sent are Borneo and Sumatra ; and here too they are few in number. 

 The genus is rapidly dying out. Those which remain seek in the 

 dense and marshy forests an asylum from the attacks of man, and 

 a shelter against the climate. During the day, they traverse the 



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