the largest of the children on his back, adopted him for his keeper, and would never afterwards be mounted by any other person.

It also appears, from respectable authority, that a soldier at Pondicherry, who was accustomed to give part of his victuals to one of these animals, having one day drank too freely, and, finding himself pursued by the guards, took refuge under the elephant's body, and fell asleep. In vain did the guard endeavour to force him from this asylum, for the elephant resolutely protected him. Next morning, the soldier, recovering from his intoxication, shuddered with horror to find himself under the belly of this huge animal; but the elephant immediately began caressing him with his trunk, to make him understand that he might now depart in safety.

But as elephants are remarkable for their love ana gratitude, so they are subject to resentment.-Acosta asserts, that a soldier in Cochin, a town on the coast of Malabar, having thrown a nut at an elephant, the beast took it up and hid it; and, some days after, seeing the soldier pass by, threw the nut in his face, making a great noise, and going away leaping and dancing. Another soldier, in the same town, meeting an elephant, with his keeper, would not give way to them; whereupon the keeper complained of the affront to the elephant, who, some time afterwards, spying the soldier by the side of the river that runs through the town, ran hastily towards him, lifted him up with his trunk, and plunged him several times in the river; after which he drew him out, leaving him to be laughed at by the spectators.

Captain Hamilton observes, that, when he was at Achen, in the island of Sumatra, he saw an elephant that had been kept there above a hundred years, but, by report, was then three hundred years old; he was about eleven feet high, and was remarkable for his extraordinary sagacity, of which he gives an instance in a laughable piece of revenge he took on a tailor. In 1692, says he, a ship, named the Dorothy, commanded by Captain Thwaits, called at Achen for refreshments; and two English gentlemen in that city went on board to furnish themselves with such European necessaries as they had occasion for, and, amongst other things, bought some Norwich stuffs for

clothes; and, there being no English tailor to be had, they employed a sural, who kept a shop in the great market-place, and had commonly several workmen sewing in his shop. It was the elephant's custom to reach in his trunk at the doors or windows as he passed along the side of the street, as begging for the decayed fruits and roots, which the inhabitants generally gave him. One morning, as he was going to the river to be washed, with his rider on his back, he happened to put his trunk in at this tailor's window; and the tailor, instead of giving him what he wanted, pricked him with his needle. The elephant seemed to take no notice of the affront, but went calmly on to the river, and washed; after which he troubled the water with one of his fore feet, and then sucked up a great quantity of the dirty water into his trunk, and, passing unconcernedly along the same side of the street where the tailor's shop was, he put in his trunk at the window, and spirted out the water on the tailor with such a prodigious force, that the offender and his journeymen were blown off their board, almost frightened out of their

senses.

A painter was desirous of drawing the elephant which was kept in the menagerie at Versailles, in an uncommon attitude, which was that of holding his trunk raised up in the air, with his mouth open. The painter's boy, in order to keep the animal in this posture, threw fruit into his mouth, but as he frequently deceived him, and made an offer only of throwing the fruit, the elephant grew angry; and (as if conscious that the painter's intention of drawing him had occasioned the insult) he turned his resentment upon the master, and taking a quantity of water in his trunk, spouted it over the drawing, and completely spoiled it.-SMITH's Wonders.

ORANG OUTANG.

THE chief of the monkey tribe, or Orang Outang, has been often studiously held up as not only making a nearer approach to the general figure of mankind than any other animal, but even as possessing a degree of intellect superior to the rest of the animal world; and a variety of

exaggerated descriptions might be cited from those who have given its natural history. Two very distinct species of Orang Outang are known; the one a native of Africa, and of a black colour; the other a native of the East Indies, and of a reddish or chestnut colour. It is to these that most of the popular tales relate. But the two species, distinct as they are, have been till lately confounded by most authors, and among others by Linnæus, under the title of Simia Satyrus. The species which makes the nearest approach to the human figure, is the chestnutcoloured, or reddish Orang Outang, well represented in the works of Vosmaer and Audebert.

Mr. Vosmaer's account of the manners of a chestnutcoloured Orang Outang, brought into Holland, in the year 1776, and presented to the Prince of Orange's menagerie, is so curious, that I shall repeat it from his accurate publication on that subject.

This animal, says Mr. Vosmaer, was in height about two Rhenish feet and a half. It shewed no fierceness or malignity, and was even of a melancholy appearance. It was fond of being in company, and shewed a preference to those who daily took care of it, of which it seemed to be very sensible. Often when they retired, it would throw itself on the ground as if in despair, uttering lamentable cries. Its keeper having been accustomed sometimes to sit near it on the ground, it would take the hay of its bed, and spread it in the form of a cushion, or a seat, and by every demonstrat.on invite its keeper to sit with it. Its usual manner of walking was on all fours, but it could also walk on its two hind feet. One morning it got unchained, and we beheld it, with wonderful agility, ascend the beams and rafters of the building; it was not without some trouble that it was taken, and we then remarked the prodigious strength of the animal, the assistance of four men being necessary, in order to hold it in such a manner as to be properly secured. During its state of liberty, it had, among many other things, taken the cork from a bottle of Malaga wine, which it drank to the last drop, and had set the bottle in its place again. When presented with strawberries on a plate, of which it was extremely fond, it was very amusing to see it take them up one by one with a fork, and put them into its mouth. Its common drink was