to remain unusually long under their mother's
protection, probably in consequence of their slow growth. While
climbing, the mother always carries her young against her bosom, the
young holding on by his mother's hair. [19] At what time of life the
Orang-Utan becomes capable of propagation, and how long the females go
with young, is unknown, but it is probable that they are not adult until
they arrive at ten or fifteen years of age. A female which lived for
five years at Batavia, had not attained one-third the height of the wild
females. It is probable that, after reaching adult years, they go on
growing, though slowly, and that they live to forty or fifty years. The
Dyaks tell of old Orangs, which have not only lost all their teeth, but
which find it so troublesome to climb, that they maintain themselves on
windfalls and juicy herbage.

The Orang is sluggish, exhibiting none of that marvellous activity
characteristic of the Gibbons. Hunger alone seems to stir him to
exertion, and when it is stilled, he relapses into repose. When the
animal sits, it curves its back and bows its head, so as to look
straight down on the ground; sometimes it holds on with its hands by
a higher branch, sometimes lets them hang phlegmatically down by its
side--and in these positions the Orang will remain, for hours together,
in the same spot, almost without stirring, and only now and then giving
utterance to its deep, growling voice. By day, he usually climbs from
one tree-top to another, and only at night descends to the ground, and
if then threatened with danger, he seeks refuge among the underwood.
When not hunted, he remains a long time in the same locality, and
sometimes stops for many days on the same tree--a firm place among its
branches serving him for a bed. It is rare for the Orang to pass the
night in the summit of a large tree, probably because it is too windy
and cold there for him; but, as soon as night draws on, he descends from
the height and seeks out a fit bed in the lower and darker part, or
in the leafy top of a small tree, among which he prefers Nibong Palms,
Pandani, or one of those parasitic Orchids which give the primeval
forests of Borneo so characteristic and striking an appearance. But
wherever he determines to sleep, there he prepares himself a sort of
nest: little boughs and leaves are drawn together round the selected
spot, and bent crosswise over one another; while to make the bed soft,
great leaves of Ferns, o