SIMIAD^E. 411 



Dressed in its Guernsey jacket and trousers, a sort of clothing whicli 

 it needed in our climate, its appearance, seated on its chair, or at the table 

 with its keeper, in his private room, was very amusing ; nor less so the 

 expression of its countenance, when soliciting a share of the food before 

 it. It looked at its keeper, then at the tempting 11 morsel, and protruded its 

 flexible lips into the form of a conical proboscis : when offered any liquid 

 to drink, in a cup or saucer, it did not, however, dip its lips into the 

 fluid, but, holding the cup in its hand, put the rim between its lips, and 

 so drained up the contents, exactly as a child would, and with all due 

 gravity and decorum. Disappointment is trying to all, and the little 

 Orang is not an exception to the general rule. Mr. G. Bennett (see his 

 Wanderings, &c., vol. i. p. 367), speaking of an Orang, which he had the 

 opportunity of seeing, in the possession of Mr. Davies, of Java, observes, 

 that, when a large bamboo cage was constructed, and in which it was 

 attempted to confine him, "he screamed with rage on being placed 

 in it, and, exerting his muscular power, soon demolished it, and was 

 then quiet as before." The same author notices also the rage mani- 

 fested in a species of Gibbon, which he was endeavouring to bring 

 home, and which, as he says, " when refused or disappointed at any- 

 thing, would display the freaks of temper of a spoiled child, lie on 

 the deck, and dash everything aside that might be within his reach ; walk 

 hurriedly, and repeat the same scene over and over again." Much in 

 the same manner this little Orang displayed its passion, throwing itself 

 about on the floor, and uttering its whining cry, till satisfied, which it 

 would always be before it resumed its ordinary composure. The person 

 who brought it to England intimated that it had exhibited several violent 

 paroxysms of passion while on board ; and, occasionally, after its intro- 

 duction into the Zoological Gardens, it indulged in fits of anger : but, 

 as kind treatment was the uniform course pursued toward it, occasions of 

 such an out-burst but rarely occurred ; unless, indeed, when it was con- 

 fined in its enclosure, and necessarily separated from the person in charge 

 of it. One of these scenes was witnessed : its keeper having fastened 

 the door of its bamboo-latticed enclosure, and gone about his other duties, 

 it gave way at once to a paroxysm of violent passion ; it traversed the 

 bamboo frame-work with the utmost celerity, for it was roused to unusual 

 activity, striving to force the rods apart, and escape into the room : 

 screaming with disappointment, it swung itself to the branches of the trees, 

 and, descending thence to the floor, it dragged its chair (a heavy one) to 

 the door, and, using it as a sort of battering-ram, endeavoured, by violent 

 and repeated blows, to force open the unyielding hinges : foiled in its 

 efforts, it again swung itself from branch to branch, and, screaming with 

 passion, traversed the lattice-work, and again tried at the door with its 

 chair. Nothing but the return of its keeper pacified it. 



