FEMININE VANITY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2764, 19 August 1931, Page 2

FEMININE VANITY.

IS FOUND EVEN AMONG THE JUNGLE ANIMALS. Feminine vanity has been traced back to its prehistoric beginnings by Ernest B. Schoedsack, co-director of “Chang” and “The Four Feathers,” who recently returned to civilisation from his- latest film-making expedition into the jungle wildernesses of Sumatra, the large island i?i the Majay Archipelago. Schoedsack says that he _ encountered numerous incidents which indicated clearly that female orang-out-angs inhabiting the Malay jungles and forests are creatures who like to .“ doll themselves up.” “ We found that Mrs Oi'ang-Outang is greatly attracted by bright colours and glitter, and she will attempt to adorn herself with any objects that please her eyes,” asserts Schoedsack. “ Because these red-haired apes are born mimics they soon learn how to hang native jewellery about their necks, and sometimes make valorous attempts to beautify themselves' with sarongs stolen from the jungle villages.” The natives believe implicitly in the humanness of the apes of their jungle, according to Schoedsack, ’•and have called them orang-outangs, which means “ men of the jungle,” since the beginnings of the Malay language. “ Natives cannot be induced to harm the orang-outang,” says Schoedsack. “ Hunters even try to protect 'them from prowling tigers and panthers. Baby orang-outangs make amusing and intelligent pets, and usually'one or two of them are found in the native villages. However, th.ey are always turned back into the jungle when they attain full growth, for an adult ape dies of loneliness when separated froip his fellofv creatures.”