168 



THAT'S IT ; 



(four), and manus 

 (hand) ; the name, 

 therefore, means 

 four-handed. Each 

 J) of the extremities, 1, 

 /) 2, 3, 4, of these 



Zjt animals forms a de- 

 wk scription of hand, 

 having a thumb op- 

 posed in its action 

 to the fingers, by 

 which they are en- 

 abled to grasp and hold by what 

 are commonly called their feet. 



The orang-outang 12, or "wild 

 man of the woods" is a native of 



unfrequented forests in the in- 

 terior of Sumatra, Borneo, Ma- 

 lacca, &c, living chiefly on 

 fruits, but occasionally eating 

 eggs, insects, and reptiles. These 

 creatures have arms so long that 

 they can touch the ground with 

 the tops of their fingers. When 

 standing upright, their bodies 

 are covered with coarse reddish 

 hair ; on the head, shoulders, 

 and back it is thick, but on the 

 fore parts of the body rather 

 thin ; the neck is short and thick ; 



and the voice has a peculiarly 

 shrill and hollow tone ; the lips 

 are thin and protuberant, the 

 ears small, the nose flat, and the 

 face has a bluish cast. 



The sagacity of these animals is so great, and 

 the evidences of consciousness of danger when 

 being hunted, together with affection for their 

 offspring, are so remarkable, as to have occa- 

 sioned great pain to those who have been their 

 pursuers. 



A few years since, Captain Hall repaired to 

 Sumatra purposely to obtain one of these ani- 

 mals, but at his outset he experienced a serious 

 obstacle in the difficulty of procuring guides to 

 conduct him to their usual haunts : this pro- 

 ceeded from the fears of the natives, who not only 

 believe that the orangs possess a natural domi- 

 nion over the great forests, but that they are 

 animated by the souls of their own ancestors. Suc- 

 ceeding at length in this preliminary part of the 

 undertaking, the Captain soon met with one of 

 the objects of his search, a female, which he 

 1 describes as having been five feet in height. 

 When first discovered-she was sitting on a branch 

 of one of the highest trees, with a young one in 

 ■ her arms. Upon being wounded she uttered a 

 piercing cry: and immediately lifting up her 

 | little one as high as her long arms could reach, 

 1 let it go among the topmost branches. While 

 the party approached to fire again she made no 

 attempt to escape, but kept a steady watch, 

 glancing her eye occasionally towards her off- 

 spring, and at last seemed to wave her hand, to 

 hasten its departure, which it safely effected. 

 * Dr. Clarke Abel describes the capture of an 

 orang-outang on the north-west coast of Su- 

 matra. He was discovered by the company of 

 a merchant's ship at a place called Ramboon ; 

 and on the approach of the boat's crew he 

 came down from a tree, and made for a clump 

 at some distance, " walking erect with a 

 waddling gait, but sometimes accelerating his 

 motion with his hands, and occasionally im- 

 pelling himself forward by the bough of a tree. 

 On being driven to a small clump, he gained 

 by one spring a very lofty branch, and 

 bounded from one branch to another with the 

 swiftness of a common monkey, his progress 

 being as rapid as that of a swift horse. After 

 : receiving five balls his exertions relaxed, and, re- 

 ! dining exhausted against a branch, he vomited 

 ; a quantity of blood. The ammunition of the 

 ! hunters being by this time exhausted, they were 

 i obliged to fell the tree in order to obtain him. 

 But what was their surprise, to see him, as the 

 tree was falling, effect his retreat to another, 

 with seemingly undiminished vigour! In fact, 

 they were forced to cut down all the trees before 

 they could force him to combat his enemies on 

 the ground, and when finally overpowered by 

 numbers, and nearly in a dying state, he seized 

 a spear made of a supple wood, which would 

 have withstood the strength of the stoutest man, 

 and broke it like a reed. It was stated by those 

 who aided in his death, that the human-like 

 expression of his countenance, and his piteous 

 manner of placing his hands over his wounds, 

 distressed their feelings so as almost to make 

 them question the nature of the act they were 



