The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26

After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth, but in all
this time it had not grown the least bit, remaining both in size
and weight the same as when I first procured it. This was no
doubt owing to the want of milk or other equally nourishing food.
Rice-water, rice, and biscuits were but a poor substitute, and
the expressed milk of the cocoa-nut which I sometimes gave it did
not quite agree with its stomach. To this I imputed an attack of
diarrhoea from which the poor little creature suffered greatly,
but a small dose of castor-oil operated well, and cured it. A
week or two afterwards it was again taken ill, and this time more
seriously. The symptoms were exactly those of intermittent fever,
accompanied by watery swellings on the feet and head. It lost all
appetite for its food, and, after lingering for a week a most
pitiable object, died, after being in my possession nearly three
months. I much regretted the loss of my little pet, which I had
at one time looked forward to bringing up to years of maturity,
and taking home to England. For several months it had afforded me
daily amusement by its curious ways and the inimitably ludicrous
expression of its little countenance. Its weight was three pounds
nine ounces, its height fourteen inches, and the spread of its
arms twenty-three inches. I preserved its skin and skeleton, and
in doing so found that when it fell from the tree it must have
broken an arm and a leg, which had, however, united so rapidly
that I had only noticed the hard swellings on the limbs where the
irregular junction of the bones had taken place.

Exactly a week after I had caught this interesting little animal,
I succeeded in shooting a full-grown male Orangutan. I had just
come home from an entomologising excursion when Charles [Charles
Allen, an English lad of sixteen, accompanied me as an assistant]
rushed in out of breath with running and excitement, and
exclaimed, interrupted by gasps, "Get the gun, sir,--be quick,--
such a large Mias!" "Where is it?" I asked, taking hold of my gun
as I spoke, which happened luckily to have one barrel loaded with
ball. "Close by, sir--on the path to the mines--he can't get
away." Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the time, so I
called them to accompany me, and started off, telling Charley to
bring all the ammunition after me as soon as possible. The path
from our clearing to the mines led along the side of the hill a
little way up its slope, and parallel with it at the foot a wide
opening had been made for a road, in which several Chinamen were
working, so that the animal could not escape into the swampy
forest below without descending to cross the road or ascending to
get round the clearings. We walked cautiously along, not making
the least noise, and listening attentively for any sound which
might betray the presence of the Mias, stopping at intervals to
gaze upwards. Charley soon joined us at the place where he had
seen the creature, and having taken the ammunition and put a
bullet in the other barrel, we dispersed a little, feeling sure
that it must be somewhere near, as it had probably descended the
hill, and would not be likely to return again.

After a short time I heard a very slight rustling sound overhead,
but on gazing up could see nothing. I moved about in every
direction to get a full view into every part of the tree under
which I had been standing, when I again heard the same noise but
louder, and saw the leaves shaking as if caused by the motion of
some heavy animal which moved off to an adjoining tree. I
immediately shouted for all of them to come up and try and get a
view, so as to allow me to have a shot. This was not an easy
matter, as the Mias had a knack of selecting places with dense
foliage beneath. Very soon, however, one of the Dyaks called me
and pointed upwards, and on looking I saw a great red hairy body
and a huge black face gazing down from a great height, as if
wanting to know what was making such a disturbance below. I
instantly fired, and he made off at once, so that I could not
then tell whether I had hit him.

He now moved very rapidly and very noiselessly for so large an
animal, so I told the Dyaks to follow and keep him in sight while
I loaded. The jungle was here full of large angular fragments of
rock from the mountain above, and thick with hanging and twisted
creepers. Running, climbing, and creeping among these, we came up
with the creature on the top of a high tree near the road, where
the Chinamen had discovered him, and were shouting their
astonishment with open mouths: "Ya Ya, Tuan; Orangutan, Tuan."
Seeing that he could not pass here without descending, he turned
up again towards the hill, and I got two shots, and following
quickly, had two more by the time he had again reached the path,
but he was always more or less concealed by foliage, and
protected by the large branch on which he was walking. Once while
loading I had a splendid view of him, moving along a large limb
of a tree in a semi-erect posture, and showing it to be an animal
of the largest size. At the path he got on to one of the loftiest
trees in the forest, and we could see one leg hanging down
useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixed himself in a
fork, where he was hidden by thick foliage, and seemed
disinclined to move. I was afraid he would remain and die in this
position, and as it was nearly evening. I could not have got the
tree cut down that day. I therefore fired again, and he then
moved off, and going up the hill was obliged to get on to some
lower trees, on the branches of one of which he fixed himself in
such a position that he could not fall, and lay all in a heap as
if dead, or dying.

I now wanted the Dyaks to go up and cut off the branch he was
resting on, but they were afraid, saying he was not dead, and
would come and attack them. We then shook the adjoining tree,
pulled the hanging creepers, and did all we could to disturb him,
but without effect, so I thought it best to send for two Chinamen
with axes to cut down the tree. While the messenger was gone,
however, one of the Dyaks took courage and climbed towards him,
but the Mias did not wait for him to get near, moving off to
another tree, where he got on to a dense mass of branches and
creepers which almost completely hid him from our view. The tree
was luckily a small one, so when the axes came we soon had it cut
through; but it was so held up by jungle ropes and climbers to
adjoining trees that it only fell into a sloping position. The
Mias did not move, and I began to fear that after all we should
not get him, as it was near evening, and half a dozen more trees
would have to be cut down before the one he was on would fall. As
a last resource we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook
the tree very much, and, after a few minutes, when we had almost
given up all hope, down he came with a crash and a thud like the
fall of a giant. And he was a giant, his head and body being
fully as large as a man's. He was of the kind called by the Dyaks
"Mias Chappan," or "Mias Pappan," which has the skin of the face
broadened out to a ridge or fold at each side. His outstretched
arms measured seven feet three inches across, and his height,
measuring fairly from the top of the head to the heel was four
feet two inches. The body just below the arms was three feet two
inches round, and was quite as long as a man's, the legs being
exceedingly short in proportion. On examination we found he had
been dreadfully wounded. Both legs were broken, one hip-joint and
the root of the spine completely shattered, and two bullets were
found flattened in his neck and jaws. Yet he was still alive when
he fell. The two Chinamen carried him home tied to a pole, and I
was occupied with Charley the whole of the next day preparing the
skin and boiling the bones to make a perfect skeleton, which are
now preserved in the Museum at Derby.

About ten days after this, on June 4th, some Dyaks came to tell
us that the day before a Mias had nearly killed one of their
companions. A few miles down the river there is a Dyak house, and
the inhabitants saw a large Orang feeding on the young shoots of
a palm by the riverside. On being alarmed he retreated towards
the jungle which was close by, and a number of the men, armed
with spears and choppers, ran out to intercept him. The man who
was in front tried to run his spear through the animal's body,
but the Mias seized it in his hands, and in an instant got hold
of the man's arm, which he seized in his mouth, making his teeth
meet in the flesh above the elbow, which he tore and lacerated in
a dreadful manner. Had not the others been close behind, the man
would have keen more seriously injured, if not killed, as he was
quite powerless; but they soon destroyed the creature with their
spears and choppers. The man remained ill for a long time, and
never fully recovered the use of his arm.

They told me the dead Mias was still lying where it had been
killed, so I offered them a reward to bring it up to our landing-
place immediately, which they promised to do. They did not come,
however, until the next day, and then decomposition had
commenced, and great patches of the hair came off, so that it was
useless to skin it. This I regretted much, as it was a very fine
full-grown male. I cut off the head and took it home to clean,
while I got my men to make a closed fence about five feet high
around the rest of the body, which would soon be devoured by
maggots, small lizards, and ants, leaving me the skeleton. There
was a great gash in his face, which had cut deep into the bone,
but the skull was a very fine one, and the teeth were remarkably
large and perfect.

On June 18th I had another great success, and obtained a fine
adult male. A Chinaman told me be had seen him feeding by the
side of the path to the river, and I found him at the same place
as the first individual I had shot. He was feeding on an oval
green fruit having a fine red arillus, like the mace which
surrounds the nutmeg, and which alone he seemed to eat, biting
off the thick outer rind and dropping it in a continual shower. I
had found the same fruit in the stomach of some others which I
had killed. Two shots caused this animal to loose his hold, but
he hung for a considerable time by one hand, and then fell flat
on his face and was half buried in the swamp. For several minutes
he lay groaning and panting, while we stood close around,
expecting every breath to be his last. Suddenly, however, by a
violent effort he raised himself up, causing us all to step back
a yard or two, when, standing nearly erect, he caught hold of a
small tree, and began to ascend it. Another shot through the back
caused him to fall down dead. A flattened bullet was found in his
tongue, having entered the lower part of the abdomen and
completely traversed the body, fracturing the first cervical
vertebra. Yet it was after this fearful wound that he had risen,
and begun climbing with considerable facility. This also was a
full-grown male of almost exactly the same dimensions as the
other two I had measured.

On June 21st I shot another adult female, which was eating fruit
in a low tree, and was the only one which I ever killed by a
single ball.

On June 24th I was called by a Chinaman to shoot a Mias, which,
he said, was on a tree close by his house, at the coal-mines.
Arriving at the place, we had some difficulty in finding the
animal, as he had gone off into the jungle, which was very rocky
and difficult to traverse. At last we found him up a very high
tree, and could see that he was a male of the largest size. As
soon as I had fired, he moved higher up the tree, and while he
was doing so I fired again; and we then saw that one arm was
broken. He had now reached the very highest part of an immense
tree, and immediately began breaking off boughs all around, and
laying them across and across to make a nest. It was very
interesting to see how well he had chosen his place, and how
rapidly he stretched out his unwounded arm in every direction,
breaking off good-sized boughs with the greatest ease, and laying
them back across each other, so that in a few minutes he had
formed a compact mass of foliage, which entirely concealed him
from our sight. He was evidently going to pass the night here,
and would probably get away early the next morning, if not
wounded too severely. I therefore fired again several times, in
hopes of making him leave his nest; but, though I felt sure I had
hit him, as at each shot he moved a little, he would not go away.
At length he raised himself up, so that half his body was
visible, and then gradually sank down, his head alone remaining
on the edge of the nest. I now felt sure he was dead, and tried
to persuade the Chinaman and his companion to cut down the tree;
but it was a very large one, and they had been at work all day,
and nothing would induce them to attempt it. The next morning, at
daybreak, I came to the place, and found that the Mias was
evidently dead, as his head was visible in exactly the same
position as before. I now offered four Chinamen a day's wages
each to cut the tree down at once, as a few hours of sunshine
would cause decomposition on the surface of the skin; but, after
looking at it and trying it, they determined that it was very big
and very hard, and would not attempt it. Had I doubled my offer,
they would probably have accepted it, as it would not have been
more than two or three hours' work; and had I been on a short
visit only, I would have done so; but as I was a resident, and
intended remaining several months longer, it would not have
answered to begin paying too exorbitantly, or I should have got
nothing done in the future at a lower rate.

For some weeks after, a cloud of flies could be seen all day,
hovering over the body of the dead Mias; but in about a month all
was quiet, and the body was evidently drying up under the
influence of a vertical sun alternating with tropical rains. Two
or three months later two Malays, on the offer of a dollar,
climbed the tree and let down the dried remains. The skin was
almost entirely enclosing the skeleton, and inside were millions
of the pupa-cases of flies and other insects, with thousands of
two or three species of small necrophagous beetles. The skull had
been much shattered by balls, but the skeleton was perfect,
except one small wristbone, which had probably dropped out and
been carried away by a lizard.

Three days after I had shot this one and lost it, Charles found
three small Orangs feeding together. We had a long chase after
them, and had a good opportunity of seeing how they make their
way from tree to tree by always choosing those limbs whose
branches are intermingled with those of some other tree, and then
grasping several of the small twigs together before they venture
to swing themselves across. Yet they do this so quickly and
certainly, that they make way among the trees at the rate of full
five or six miles an hour, as we had continually to run to keep
up with them. One of these we shot and killed, but it remained
high up in the fork of a tree; and, as young animals are of
comparatively little interest, I did not have the tree cut down
to get it.

At this time I had the misfortune to slip among some fallen
trees, and hurt my ankle; and, not being careful enough at first,
it became a severe inflamed ulcer, which would not heal, and kept
me a prisoner in the house the whole of July and part of August.
When I could get out again, I determined to take a trip up a
branch of the Simunjon River to Semabang, where there was said to
be a large Dyak house, a mountain with abundance of fruit, and
plenty of Orangs and fine birds. As the river was very narrow,
and I was obliged to go in a very small boat with little luggage,
I only took with me a Chinese boy as a servant. I carried a cask
of medicated arrack to put Mias skins in, and stores and
ammunition for a fortnight. After a few miles, the stream became
very narrow and winding, and the whole country on each side was
flooded. On the banks were an abundance of monkeys--the common
Macacus cynomolgus, a black Semnopithecus, and the extraordinary
long-nosed monkey (Nasalis larvatus), which is as large as a
three-year old child, has a very long tail, and a fleshy nose
longer than that of the biggest-nosed man. The further we went on
the narrower and more winding the stream became; fallen trees
sometimes blocked up our passage, and sometimes tangled branches
and creepers met completely across it, and had to be cut away
before we could get on. It took us two days to reach Semabang,
and we hardly saw a bit of dry land all the way. In the latter
part of the journey I could touch the bushes on each side for
miles; and we were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pandanus),
which grow abundantly in the water, falling across the stream. In
other places dense rafts of floating grass completely filled up
the channel, making our journey a constant succession of
difficulties.

Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet long,
raised high above the ground on posts, with a wide verandah and
still wider platform of bamboo in front of it. Almost all the
people, however, were away on some excursion after edible birds'-
nests or bees'-wax, and there only remained in the house two or
three old men and women with a lot of children. The mountain or
hill was close by, covered with a complete forest of fruit-trees,
among which the Durian and Mangusteen were very abundant; but the
fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a little here and there. I
spent a week at this place, going out everyday in various
directions about the mountain, accompanied by a Malay, who had
stayed with me while the other boatmen returned. For three days
we found no Orangs, but shot a deer and several monkeys. On the
fourth day, however, we found a Mias feeding on a very lofty
Durian tree, and succeeded in killing it, after eight shots.
Unfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging by its hands, and
we were obliged to leave it and return home, as it was several
miles off. As I felt pretty sure it would fall during the night,
I returned to the place early the next morning, and found it on
the ground beneath the tree. To my astonishment and pleasure, it
appeared to be a different kind from any I had yet seen; for
although a full-grown male, by its fully developed teeth and very
large canines, it had no sign of the lateral protuberance on the
face, and was about one-tenth smaller in all its dimensions than
the other adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to
be broader than in the larger species, a character distinguishing
the Simia morio of Professor Owen, which he had described from
the cranium of a female specimen. As it was too far to carry the
animal home, I set to work and skinned the body on the spot,
leaving the head, hands, and feet attached, to be finished at
home. This specimen is now in the British Museum.

At the end of a week, finding no more Orangs, I returned home;
and, taking in a few fresh stores, and this time accompanied by
Charles, went up another branch of the river, very similar in
character, to a place called Menyille, where there were several
small Dyak houses and one large one. Here the landing place was a
bridge of rickety poles, over a considerable distance of water;
and I thought it safer to leave my cask of arrack securely placed
in the fork of a tree. To prevent the natives from drinking it, I
let several of them see me put in a number of snakes and lizards;
but I rather think this did not prevent them from tasting it. We
were accommodated here in the verandah of the large house, in
which were several great baskets of dried human heads, the
trophies of past generations of head-hunters. Here also there was
a little mountain covered with fruit-trees, and there were some
magnificent Durian trees close by the house, the fruit of which
was ripe; and as the Dyaks looked upon me as a benefactor in
killing the Mias, which destroys a great deal of their fruit,
they let us eat as much as we liked; we revelled in this emperor
of fruits in its greatest perfection.

The very day after my arrival in this place, I was so fortunate
as to shoot another adult male of the small Orang, the Mias-
kassir of the Dyaks. It fell when dead, but caught in a fork of
the tree and remained fixed. As I was very anxious to get it, I
tried to persuade two young Dyaks who were with me to cut down
the tree, which was tall, perfectly straight and smooth-barked,
and without a branch for fifty or sixty feet. To my surprise,
they said they would prefer climbing up it, but it would be a
good deal of trouble, and, after a little talking together, they
said they would try. They first went to a clump of bamboo that
stood near, and cut down one of the largest stems. From this they
chopped off a short piece, and splitting it, made a couple of
stout pegs, about a foot long and sharp at one end. Then cutting
a thick piece of wood for a mallet, they drove one of the pegs
into the tree and hung their weight upon it. It held, and this
seemed to satisfy them, for they immediately began making a
quantity of pegs of the same kind, while I looked on with great
interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such a lofty
tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of
which at a good height would certainly cause their death. When
about two dozen pegs were made, one of them began cutting some
very long and slender bamboo from another clump, and also
prepared some cord from the hark of a small tree. They now drove
in a peg very firmly at about three feet from the ground, and
bringing one of the long bamboos, stood it upright close to the
tree, and bound it firmly to the two first pegs, by means of the
bark cord and small notches near the head of each peg. One of the
Dyaks now stood on the first peg and drove in a third, about
level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo in the same way,
and then mounted another step, standing on one foot, and holding
by the bamboo at the peg immediately above him, while he drove in
the next one. In this manner he ascended about twenty feet; when
the upright bamboo was becoming thin, another was handed up by
his companion, and this was joined by tying both bamboos to three
or four of the pegs. When this was also nearly ended, a third was
added, and shortly after, the lowest branches of the tree were
reached, along which the young Dyak scrambled, and soon sent the
Mias tumbling down headlong. I was exceedingly struck by the
ingenuity of this mode of climbing, and the admirable manner in
which the peculiar properties of the bamboo were made available.
The ladder itself was perfectly safe, since if any one peg were
loose or faulty, and gave way, the strain would be thrown on
several others above and below it. I now understood the use of
the line of bamboo pegs sticking in trees, which I had often
seen, and wondered for what purpose they could have been put
there. This animal was almost identical in size and appearance
with the one I had obtained at Semabang, and was the only other
male specimen of the Simia morio which I obtained. It is now in
the Derby Museum.

I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of
different ages, all of which I preserved. One of the females,
with several young ones, was feeding on a Durian tree with unripe
fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking off branches
and the great spiny fruits with every appearance of rage, causing
such a shower of missiles as effectually kept us from approaching
too near the tree. This habit of throwing down branches when
irritated has been doubted, but I have, as here narrated,
observed it myself on at least three separate occasions. It was
however always the female Arias who behaved in this way, and it
may be that the male, trusting more to his great strength and his
powerful canine teeth, is not afraid of any other animal, and
does not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of
the female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and
her young ones.

In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much
troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always kept in a state of
semi-starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I had a great iron
pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, and at night
I covered this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it;
but the dogs managed to remove these and carried away the greater
part of one of my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed away
a good deal of the upper leather of my strong boots, and even ate
a piece of my mosquito-curtain, where some lamp-oil had been
spilt over it some weeks before.

On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to fall in with
a very old male Mias, feeding on some low trees growing in the
water. The country was flooded for a long distance, but so full
of trees and stumps that the laden boat could not be got in among
them, and if it could have been we should only have frightened
the Mias away. I therefore got into the water, which was nearly
up to my waist, and waded on until I was near enough for a shot.
The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep
in the water that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour
the powder in. I therefore had to search for a shallow place, and
after several shots under these trying circumstances, I was
delighted to see the monstrous animal roll over into the water. I
now towed him after me to the stream, but the Malays objected to
having the animal put into the boat, and he was so heavy that I
could not do it without their help. I looked about for a place to
skin him, but not a bit of dry ground was to be seen, until at
last I found a clump of two or three old trees and stumps,
between which a few feet of soil had collected just above the
water, which was just large enough for us to drag the animal upon
it. I first measured him, and found him to be by far the largest
I had yet seen, for, though the standing height was the same as
the others (4 feet 2 inches), the outstretched arms were 7 feet 9
inches, which was six inches more than the previous one, and the
immense broad face was 13 1/2 inches wide, whereas the widest I
had hitherto seen was only 11 1/2 inches. The girth of the body
was 3 feet 7 1/2 inches. I am inclined to believe, therefore,
that the length and strength of the arms, and the width of the
face continues increasing to a very great age, while the standing
height, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head,
rarely if ever exceeds 4 feet 2 inches.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26