FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223  
224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   >>   >|  
or Fern leaves, like those of which his bed is made, and he is especially careful to wrap up his head in them. It is this habit of covering himself up which has probably led to the fable that the Orang builds huts in the trees. Although the Orang resides mostly amid the boughs of great trees, during the daytime, he is very rarely seen squatting on a thick branch, as other apes, and particularly the Gibbons, do. The Orang, on the contrary, confines himself to the slender leafy branches, so that he is seen right at the top of the trees, a mode of life which is closely related to the constitution of his hinder limbs, and especially to that of his seat. For this is provided with no callosities, such as are possessed by many of the lower apes, and even by the Gibbons; and those bones of the pelvis, which are termed the ischia, and which form the solid framework of the surface on which the body rests in the sitting posture, are not expanded like those of the apes which possess callosities, but are more like those of man. An Orang climbs so slowly and cautiously,* as, in this act, to resemble a man more than an ape, taking great care of his feet, so that injury of them seems to affect him far more than it does other apes. ([Footnote] * "They are the slowest and least active of all the monkey tribe, and their motions are surprisingly awkward and uncouth."--Sir James Brooke, in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society', 1841.) Unlike the Gibbons, whose forearms do the greater part of the work, as they swing from branch to branch, the Orang never makes even the smallest jump. In climbing, he moves alternately one hand and one foot, or, after having laid fast hold with the hands, he draws up both feet together. In passing from one tree to another, he always seeks out a place where the twigs of both come close together, or interlace. Even when closely pursued, his circumspection is amazing: he shakes the branches to see if they will bear him, and then bending an overhanging bough down by throwing his weight gradually along it, he makes a bridge from the tree he wishes to quit to the next.* ([Footnote] *Mr. Wallace's account of the progression of the Orang almost exactly corresponds with this.) On the ground the Orang always goes laboriously and shakily, on all fours. At starting he will run faster than a man, though he may soon be overtaken. The very long arms which, when he runs, are but little bent, raise the body of the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223  
224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Gibbons

 

branch

 

callosities

 

branches

 
closely
 
Footnote
 

passing

 

careful

 

pursued

 

circumspection


amazing

 

shakes

 

leaves

 

interlace

 

smallest

 

climbing

 

alternately

 
starting
 

faster

 

shakily


ground
 
laboriously
 

overtaken

 

corresponds

 

throwing

 

weight

 

gradually

 
overhanging
 

bending

 

bridge


account

 
progression
 

Wallace

 
wishes
 

Unlike

 

pelvis

 
boughs
 
possessed
 

termed

 

ischia


sitting

 

posture

 

resides

 

surface

 

framework

 

provided

 
slender
 

rarely

 
confines
 

contrary