OK INSTINCT. 
4:>1 
Cunning appears to be a principal feature in the character of 
these animals. In their attacks they commence operations at 
a distance, and endeavour to terrify their foes by their cries. 
Bands of these marauders are stated to be cruel enemies to the 
planter, and they have even been known to watch their opportunity 
and destroy a plantation from motives of revenge, and this, with 
submission, makes them almost too human. 
There is a curious Sumatran species, the Siamangs, as they are 
commonly called by the Malays. They possess a head or chief, 
who has the character of being the strongest of the party. He 
directs their motions, and presides at their morning and evening 
bowlings. Authors give very contradictory accounts of the dis¬ 
position of these animals : some describe them as very intelligent, 
others very revengeful, others remarkably tractable. The truth 
seems to be, as the groom said of the horses, “ They’ve a got 
their different tempers, just like we Christians.” At all events, 
the lady Siamangs are most excellent mothers, and carefully 
preside over the ablutions of the little Siamangs. These they 
carry to the banks of a stream, wash them thoroughly, notwith¬ 
standing their cries and kickings, and then wipe them dry, after 
the most approved method of conducting the baby-toilette. In 
the Chimpanzee, the African type of ourang, there are some points 
in which they come nearer to man than any other kind. A vete¬ 
rinary friend of mine, Mr. Youatt, professionally attended Tommy, 
as he was called, in his illness, which terminated fatally at the 
Zoological Gardens. Peace be with him ! Everybody loved 
him, everybody was kind to him. A few days before his de¬ 
parture he was suffered to come forth for a closer enjoyment of 
the kitchen fire; and there he sat, leaning his cheek upon his 
hand, watching the roasting of a depending shoulder of mutton, 
as it revolved and hissed between him and the glowing grate— 
no, not with the prying mischievous eyes of ordinary monkeys, 
but with a pensive philosophic air that seemed to admit his own 
inferiority, and to say — “Ah! man is, indeed, the cooking 
animal* !” 
In a lecture *^On the Intellectual and Moral Principles of 
Animals,” which I had the honour to deliver a few months since 
in this theatre, I adduced sufficient proof, “that the distinction 
in the intellectual, ay, and even the moral, qualities of the biped 
and the quadruped, is in degree, and not in kind; and, however 
proud man may hesitate to acknowledge it, that the organization 
IS the same, the connexions the same, the functions the same, 
and the only difference is in the proportion of the parts.” I did 
VOL. XI. 
Colburn’s MntUlilv Magazine. 
3 K ■ 
