Orange-Utan

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a manlike ape found in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. The male attains a height of possibly four feet, and stands erect in a constrained position with its long arms almost touching the ground. The name is Malay, signifying man of the jungle. The orang walks on all fours, with a gait resembling that of a person hobbling forward on crutches. It is too heavy to jump from branch to branch, but it swings itself in tree tops with grace and great agility. The feet, hands, and face are bare. The rest of the body is covered with scanty reddish hair. The orang-utan feeds chiefly on fruits and the succulent shoots of trees. It descends to the ground for water. It builds large nests in tree tops, and is quite inoffensive, though defending itself with ferocity when brought to bay. The orang is about two-thirds as large as its African relative, the gorilla. It has brick red hair. The gorilla is black. Mr. William T. Hornaday writes: In captivity young orang-utans are as affectionate as human children, and very fond of their human friends. In the jungles of Borneo the full-grown males often flight savagely by biting each other's faces, and by biting off fingers and toes. At night the orang makes a nest to sleep upon by breaking off leafy branches and laying them cross-wise in the forked top of a sapling. On this huge nest-like bed it lies flat upon its back, grasps a branch firmly in each hand and foot, and is rocked to sleep by the cradle-like swaying of the tree top. Unless attacked at close quarters in their forest homes, none of the great apes is dangerous to man. All of them flee quickly from the dreaded presence of Man, the Destroyer. They never fight with clubs, but when attacked at close quarters they bite, just as do human roughs. When enraged, the gorilla does beat its breast with its fists, just as Du Chaillu said; and it does this even in captivity. Place upon the shoulders of a gorilla the head of a chimpanzee, and we would have--what? The Missing Link, no less--a hairy, speechless man! The man-apes we have. Let those who seek the undiscovered ape-man search the Tertiary deposits of the fertile uplands that lie between the gloomy equatorial forests of the black apes and the Bushmen of South Africa; for there, if anywhere, will the Missing Link be found.