THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
ever, is not used for respiration ; it is fingered like a glove and serves some use 
not yet definitely known, altfiough it has been suggested that it may increase 
his levity when swinging through the air. The orang-outang , when young, is 
easily tamed and is quite an amusing pet, but should it not meet an early 
death from consumption, and failure to become acclimated, it grows intractable- 
and savage with increasing years. In its natural state it is frugivorous, but 
in captivity learns to be omnivorous, and in particular grows passionately fond 
of spirituous and fermented liquors. In the woods it shows great fondness 
for cocoanuts whose shells it is able to crush. This same power, partly mus- 
BORNEANS CAPTURING AN ORANG OUTANG. 
cular and partly mental, renders it an adept at opening any bottles which it 
may find while in a state of captivity. 
The orang-outang is found in Borneo, Java and Sumatra, where it is com¬ 
monly called the wild man of the woods. Its height is about four feet, its arms 
particularly muscular, and so long that when standing erect, it can touch the 
ground with them, and legs correspondingly short and weak. His success as 
an acrobat might lend support to the belief that he was the original trapezist. 
The hair is coarse and reddish, and thick except about the fore parts. The face 
is blue and for the most part naked; the eye-brows are bushy and prominent; 
the palms of the hands are hairless, and the creature sports mustache, chin- 
beard and side-whiskers. The ears are small, the muzzle long and thin, the nose 
flat, the lips remarkably extensible, and the creature indulges in what among 
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