'4,2 THE ORAN OTAn*. 



very common in the woods of that country, where 

 they sometunes attained a gigantic stature. Their 

 bodies were covered, but not very thickly, with a 

 dun coloured hair ; and their legs were without 

 calves. They always w^alked upright, and generally, 

 when on the ground, carried their hands clasped 

 on the hinder part of their neck. They slept in 

 the trees, amongst which they built shelters from 

 the rain. Their food was fruit and nuts, and in no 

 instance were they known to be carnivorous. The 

 inhabitants of the country, when they travel in the 

 woods, make fires around the place where they sleep, 

 to keep at a distance the various species of voraci- 

 ous animals ; to these fires the Oran Otans would 

 assemble in the mornings, sitting by them till the 

 last of the embers were expired *.- — Among the woods 

 on Ihe banks of the river Gambia in Africa we are 

 told that the Oran Otans collect in herds of three 

 or four thousand, marching in a rank, the larger 

 ones acting as leaders. In these troops they are ex- 

 cessively impudent and mischievous. Jobson, Vvho 

 gives the account, says, that whenever his party, in 

 sailing along the river, passed their stations, they 

 mounted the trees and gazed upon the men 5 some- 

 times they would shake the trees with their hands,, 

 which they did with vast force, at the same time 

 cliatrering and making a loud noise. At night 

 when the parly were at anchor, the animals often 

 took their stations on the rocks and heights above. 

 When the men were on shore and met any of them, 



• Puitbas. ii. 98'2. Battel was in Angola in the ye;ir 1589. 



