Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/171

 they are never safe. When you hear a colony of monkeys break into an uproar in the middle of the night you may be sure that a snake has got among them and carried off one of their number. The only means of defense that the monkeys have is to get cocoanuts and stones and drop them on their enemy.

The strength of the orang is very great. Many incidents have occured wherein the ape has twisted a gun barrel as though it were made of wire, and even solid iron has yielded in its grasp. It will grip and break with one hand a tree branch that would take the strength of several men to do likewise. It can lift enormous weights with out any effort at all. A story is told of an orang that was brought to London and, as the keepers thought, safely caged for the night. The next morning the bars were found bent asunder and the ape nowhere to be seen. Consternation reigned in the Zoo. The news spread like wild-fire and people fled in all directions. Eventually the orang was found in a dark corner, very cold and hungry. It was coaxed back into the cage in which it had been brought from the docks and from there transferred to another home, this time of strong steel.

In captivity the orang is gentle and not nearly as treacherous as some of the apes, but this is only as long as it is well treated and never teased. It will remember an injury for a long time and its vengeance is terrible if it ever gets a chance to wreak it.

The house in which orangs are to be kept must be very dry for when they are placed near damp they soon get consumption and die. For so large and strong an animal they are exceedingly delicate.

When baby orangs are sick they allow themselves to be doctored and will submit to being tucked up in blankets and kept warm just like children. They seem to know by instinct that it is being done for their own good.

Orangs are intelligent and can be taught many tricks and even be made to sit up at a table and eat with a spoon and use a napkin. Kipling, in one of his books, tells of a Frenchman who lived in Sumatra and who had caught an orang when a baby and tamed it. The orang would fetch his slippers, sit in a chair at table and smoke cigars just like a human being. All went well for a few years until the Frenchman married a wife. The orang immediately became very jealous and one day, when its master was out of the way, it strangled the woman. Sometimes when orangs-utans are caged near other apes they become quite friendly, especially if they are young, and they will play together through the bars. They love to get hold of a piece of looking glass or colored ribbon. They will work themselves up into a great excitement and have a rough and tumble scramble for its possession.