experiment again."

I did so; but the difficulty was even more obvious than before. "This,"

I said, "is the mark of no human hand."

Read now," replied Dupin, "this passage from Cuvier."

It was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive account of the

large fulvous Ourang-Outang of the East Indian Islands. The gigantic

stature, the prodigious strength and activity, the wild ferocity, and

the imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently well known

to all. I understood the full horrors of the murder at once.

The description of the digits," said I, as I made an end of reading,

is in exact accordance with this drawing. I see that no animal but an

Ourang-Outang, of the species here mentioned, could have impressed the

indentations as you have traced them. This tuft of tawny hair, too, is

identical in character with that of the beast of Cuvier. But I cannot

possibly comprehend the particulars of this frightful mystery. Besides,

there were two voices heard in contention, and one of them was

unquestionably the voice of a Frenchman."

True; and you will remember an expression attributed almost

unanimously, by the evidence, to this voice,--the expression, 'mon

Dieu!' This, under the circumstances, has been justly characterized by

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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1