124 . The Kindred of Man. [Fe 
higher apes, until in the autumn of 1879 a young orang-utan’ 
safely received. 
There is something about the orang that irresistibly S 
a spider—one of those red, hairy, long-legged spiders which 0 
sees with an instinctive feeling of repulsion. At no age € 
the animal be called handsome, and the old males, covered 
coarse, reddish-brown hair six or eight inches long, W 
huge protruding jaw and a mass of hardened skin on 
cheek, are about as unprepossessing as anything that natur 
produced. “ Topsey,” however, as is sufficiently indicate 
her baptismal name, belongs to the fairer sex; her age—prove 
for that reason, is unknown. When she arrived she was Supp? 
to be about two or three years old, but as the lapse of time” 
made hardly any change in her personal appearance, save in 
way of embonpoint, it is probable that she was older, altho 
she is certainly not half grown; if, indeed, as has been sugg 
she may not be a dwarf—a sort of feminine Tom Thumb 4 
orangs ; and in this, possibly is the explanation of the un 
good health which she has enjoyed through a lifetime 
longer than is common to her species in captivity. The 4 
of nutrition required to simply maintain the existing COn 
of body, would of course be less than if the processes of g 
were in full activity, and the assimilation of food, which is 
ably defective in most caged animals, would, as has been ti 
here, be sufficient to keep her in good condition. , 
Between the orang and chimpanzee there is a on 
ence in moral qualities. The latter is full of life, vigor, 
lively and child-like in disposition, enjoying life to the ful 
taking interest in all that goes on about it. Quite th re 
with the orang—it is slow, sluggish and calculating ; ph 
cally indifferent to everything but its immediate wants—V! 
ary and stoic in one—life is only for the means of living, am 
itself is hardly worth the pain of an exertion. It is exasper ti 
the apathy of the orang; for hours it will lie wrapped in a 
close to the front of the cage, lazily following with its eye 
motions of any person who comes within its wange of vi 
slowly blinking at a straggling fly upon the glass, moving 
it must Le A with the greatest deliberation. If left} 
by l ! i to a rope or Ł } , there it will. hang, perk 
ann minutes; before a ki g upits nid to take holc 
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