DOHONG, THE ORANG UTAN 111 



watched her quietly and silently for awhile, 

 and then his forehead puckered up as though 

 the noise jarred his nerves. He appeared 

 worried when she kept up this performance 

 in spite of all her keepers could say, and 

 then, as though by a sudden thought, when 

 Polly had worked herself up into a perfect 

 frenzy, he got up, walked over to her on his 

 feet and knuckles, and, with a peculiar little 

 gutteral sound, hit her deliberately on the 

 side of the head. And as she stopped scream- 

 ing for a moment to put her hands to her 

 head — I have no doubt an orang utan can 

 give a good thumping blow — he calmly picked 

 up the piece of banana and ate it! 



I was much astonished at that time to see 

 this performance of one ape hitting another 

 on the head, but I have since seen others do 

 it frequently. For instance, Polly, who is 

 now in a cage with another chimpanzee, a 

 blackfaced one, very often gets hit on the 

 head in this same way by her companion, 

 Soko. And Polly always deserves all she gets, 

 for she has a frightful temper, in spite of 



