ORDER QUADRUMANA. 245 



factor, he learned to eat with a spoon ; and might be often 

 seen sitting at his cabin door, enjoying his coffee, quite 

 unembarrassed by those who observed him, and with a 

 grotesque and sober air, that seemed a burlesque on human 

 nature. 



" Next to the boatswain, I was, perhaps, his most inti- 

 mate acquaintance. He would always follow me to the 

 mast-head, whither I often went for the sake of reading 

 apart from the noise of the ' ship ; and, having satisfied 

 himself that my pockets contained no eatables, would lie 

 down by my side, and pulling a topsail entirely over him, 

 peep from it occasionally to watch my movements. 



" His favourite amusement in Java was in swinging 

 from the branches of trees, in passing from one to another, 

 and in climbing over the roofs of houses ; on board, in hang- 

 ing by his arms from the ropes, and in romping with the 

 boys of the ship. He would entice them into play by strik- 

 ing them with his hand as they passed, and bounding from 

 them, but allowing them to overtake him, and engage in a 

 mock scuffle, in which he used his hands, feet, and mouth. 

 If any conjecture could be formed from these frolicks of his 

 mode of attacking an adversary, it would appear to be his 

 first object to throw him down, then to secure him with his 

 hands and feet, and then wound him with his teeth. 



" On board ship he commonly slept at the mast-head, 

 after wrapping himself in a sail. In making his bed, he 

 used the greatest pains to remove every thing out of his 

 way, that might render the surface on which he intended 

 to lie uneven : and, having satisfied himself with this part 

 of his arrangement, spread out the sail, and lying down 

 upon it on his back, drew it. over his body. Sometimes I 

 pre-occupied his bed, and teased him by refusing to give it 

 up. On these occasions he would endeavour to pull the sail 

 from under me, or to force me from it, and would not rest 

 till I had resigned it. If it were large enough for both, he 



