|
|
Cornugaya Directory 02
Page 01
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 callosites 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.
In either case the creature thinks itself safe, but is sure to be
found out sooner or later; nor is it easy to explain this mockery
save by reflecting that everything must have its meat in due season,
and that meat can only be found for such a multitude of mouths by
giving everything as meat in due season to something else. This is
like the Kilkenny cats, or robbing Peter to pay Paul; but it is the
way of the world, and as every animal must contribute in kind to the
picnic of the universe, one does not see what better arrangement
could be made than the providing each race with a hereditary
fallacy, which shall in the end get it into a scrape, but which
shall generally stand the wear and tear of life for some time. "Do
ut des" is the writing on all flesh to him that eats it; and no
creature is dearer to itself than it is to some other that would
devour it.
|
