THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 313 



may be heard at the distance of many miles, and which, 

 when near, stun when they do not frighten. This is the 

 morning call of the mountain Malays ; but to the inhabitants 

 of the town, who are unaccustomed to it, it is an un support- 

 able annoyance. By way of compensation, the siamangs 

 keep a profound silence during the day, unless when inter- 

 rupted in their repose or their sleep. They are slow and 

 heavy in their gait, wanting confidence when they climb 

 and agility when they leap, so that they may be easily 

 caught when they can be surprised. But nature, in depriv- 

 ing them of the means of readily escaping danger, has 

 endowed them with a vigilance which rarely fails them 

 and if they hear a noise which is unusual to them, even at 

 the distance of a mile, fright seizes them and they imme- 

 diately take flight. When surprised on the ground, however, 

 they may be captured without resistance, either overwhelmed 

 with fear or conscious of their weakness and the impossi- 

 bility of escaping. At first, indeed, they endeavour to avoid 

 their pursuers by flight, and it is then that their want of skill 

 in this exercise becomes most apparent." 



" However numerous the troop may be, if one is 

 wounded it is immediately abandoned by the rest, unless, 

 indeed, it happen to be a young one. Then the mother, 

 who either carries it or follows close behind, stops, falls 

 with it, and, uttering the most frightful cries, precipitates 

 herself upon the common enemy with open mouth and arms 

 extended. But it is manifest that these animals are not 

 made for combat ; they neither know how to deal nor to 

 shun a blow. Nor is their maternal affection displayed 

 only in moments of danger. The care which the females 

 bestow upon their offspring is so tender and even refined, 

 that one would be almost tempted to attribute the sentiment 

 to a rational rather than an instinctive process. It is a 

 curious and interesting spectacle, which a little precaution 

 has sometimes enabled me to witness, to see these females 

 carry their young to the river, wash their faces in spite of 

 their outcries, wipe and dry them, and altogether bestow 





