246 ANTHROPOID APES. 



shoots, as, for instance, on the bamboo. They are 

 particularly fond of the durian, of which the smell 

 is so offensive and the taste so good {Durio 

 zibethinus). They destroy much more than they 

 consume, and leave many fragments below the 

 trees on which they have been feeding. I do not 

 know whether orangs, as well as gorillas and chim- 

 panzees, display any taste for carnivorous food. 

 Huxley, who has collected much information about 

 anthropoids which is not accessible to others, states 

 that it is not known whether the orang destroys 

 living animals. 



The same naturalist terms the orang's gait on all 

 fours laborious and unsteady. If chased, he runs 

 faster than a man, but is soon overtaken. The very 

 long arms, which are only slightly bent in running, 

 raise the body in a remarkable way, so that the 

 orang almost assumes the position of a very old 

 man, bowed by age, who supports himself with a 

 stick. When walking, this ape places the closed 

 fingers, or rarely tlie open palm, of the hands upon 

 the ground. The toes of the feet are also curved 

 inwards, so that the outer edge of the foot is turned 

 downwards. More rarely the toes are completely 

 closed, or the whole of the sole of the foot serves as 

 the support. The use of the outer edge of the foot 

 in walking, as Huxley justly observes, is such as to 

 bring the heel more upon the ground, while the 

 curved toes partly touch the ground with the 

 upper surface of their first phalanges, and the surface 

 of the outermost toes of each foot rest altogether 

 on the ground. 



