The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

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As this was the last Mias I shot, and the last time I saw an
adult living animal, I will give a sketch of its general habits,
and any other facts connected with it. The Orangutan is known to
inhabit Sumatra and Borneo, and there is every reason to believe
that it is confined to these two great islands, in the former of
which, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo it has a
wide range, inhabiting many districts on the southwest,
southeast, northeast, and northwest coasts, but appears to be
chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems, at
first sight, very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite
unknown in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on
the west, and Sadong, on the east. But when we know the habits
and mode of life of the animal, we see a sufficient reason for
this apparent anomaly in the physical features of the Sarawak
district. In the Sadong, where I observed it, the Mias is only
found when the country is low level and swampy, and at the same
time covered with a lofty virgin forest. From these swamps rise
many isolated mountains, on some of which the Dyaks have settled
and covered with plantations of fruit trees. These are a great
attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the unripe fruits,
but always retires to the swamp at night. Where the country
becomes slightly elevated, and the soil dry, the Mias is no
longer to be found. For example, in all the lower part of the
Sadong valley it abounds, but as soon as we ascend above the
limits of the tides, where the country, though still flat, is
high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now the Sarawak valley has
this peculiarity--the lower portion though swampy, is not
covered with a continuous lofty forest, but is principally
occupied by the Nipa palm; and near the town of Sarawak where the
country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and
covered with small patches of virgin forest, and much second-
growth jungle on the ground, which has once been cultivated by
the Malays or Dyaks.

Now it seems probable to me that a wide extent of unbroken and
equally lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable
existence of these animals. Such forests form their open country,
where they can roam in every direction with as much facility as
the Indian on the prairie, or the Arab on the desert, passing
from tree-top to tree-top without ever being obliged to descend
upon the earth. The elevated and the drier districts are more
frequented by man, more cut up by clearings and low second-growth
jungle--not adapted to its peculiar mode of progression, and
where it would therefore be more exposed to danger, and more
frequently obliged to descend upon the earth. There is probably
also a greater variety of fruit in the Mias district, the small
mountains which rise like islands out of it serving as gardens or
plantations of a sort, where the trees of the uplands are to be
found in the very midst of the swampy plains.

It is a singular and very interesting sight to watch a Mias
making his way leisurely through the forest. He walks
deliberately along some of the larger branches in the semi-erect
attitude which the great length of his arms and the shortness of
his legs cause him naturally to assume; and the disproportion
between these limbs is increased by his walking on his knuckles,
not on the palm of the hand, as we should do. He seems always to
choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree,
on approaching which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing
the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both hands, seems
to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself
across to the next branch, on which he walks along as before. He
never jumps or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet
manages to get along almost as quickly as a person can run
through the forest beneath. The long and powerful arms are of the
greatest use to the animal, enabling it to climb easily up the
loftiest trees, to seize fruits and young leaves from slender
boughs which will not bear its weight, and to gather leaves and
branches with which to form its nest. I have already described
how it forms a nest when wounded, but it uses a similar one to
sleep on almost every night. This is placed low down, however, on
a small tree not more than from twenty to fifty feet from the
ground, probably because it is warmer and less exposed to wind
than higher up. Each Mias is said to make a fresh one for himself
every night; but I should think that is hardly probable, or their
remains would be much more abundant; for though I saw several
about the coal-mines, there must have been many Orangs about
every day, and in a year their deserted nests would become very
numerous. The Dyaks say that, when it is very wet, the Mias
covers himself over with leaves of pandanus, or large ferns,
which has perhaps led to the story of his making a hut in the
trees.

The Orang does not leave his bed until the sun has well risen and
has dried up the dew upon the leaves. He feeds all through the
middle of the day, but seldom returns to the same tree two days
running. They do not seem much alarmed at man, as they often
stared down upon me for several minutes, and then only moved away
slowly to an adjacent tree. After seeing one, I have often had to
go half a mile or more to fetch my gun, and in nearly every case
have found it on the same tree, or within a hundred yards, when I
returned. I never saw two full-grown animals together, but both
males and females are sometimes accompanied by half-grown young
ones, while, at other times, three or four young ones were seen
in company. Their food consists almost exclusively of fruit, with
occasionally leaves, buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer
unripe fruits, some of which were very sour, others intensely
bitter, particularly the large red, fleshy arillus of one which
seemed an especial favourite. In other cases they eat only the
small seed of a large fruit, and they almost always waste and
destroy more than they eat, so that there is a continual rain of
rejected portions below the tree they are feeding on. The Durian
is an especial favourite, and quantities of this delicious fruit
are destroyed wherever it grows surrounded by forest, but they
will not cross clearings to get at them. It seems wonderful how
the animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering of which
is so thick and tough, and closely covered with strong conical
spines. It probably bites off a few of these first, and then,
making a small hole, tears open the fruit with its powerful
fingers.

The Mias rarely descends to the ground, except when pressed by
hunger, it seeks succulent shoots by the riverside; or, in very
dry weather, has to search after water, of which it generally
finds sufficient in the hollows of leaves. Only once I saw two
half-grown Orangs on the ground in a dry hollow at the foot of
the Simunjon hill. They were playing together, standing erect,
and grasping each other by the arms. It may be safely stated,
however, that the Orang never walks erect, unless when using its
hands to support itself by branches overhead or when attacked.
Representations of its walking with a stick are entirely
imaginary.

The Dyaks all declare that the Mias is never attacked by any
animal in the forest, with two rare exceptions; and the accounts
I received of these are so curious that I give them nearly in the
words of my informants, old Dyak chiefs, who had lived all their
lives in the places where the animal is most abundant. The first
of whom I inquired said: "No animal is strong enough to hurt the
Mias, and the only creature he ever fights with is the crocodile.
When there is no fruit in the jungle, he goes to seek food on the
banks of the river where there are plenty of young shoots that he
likes, and fruits that grow close to the water. Then the
crocodile sometimes tries to seize him, but the Mias gets upon
him, and beats him with his hands and feet, and tears him and
kills him." He added that he had once seen such a fight, and that
he believes that the Mias is always the victor.

My next informant was the Orang Kaya, or chief of the Balow
Dyaks, on the Simunjon River. He said: "The Mias has no enemies;
no animals dare attack it but the crocodile and the python. He
always kills the crocodile by main strength, standing upon it,
pulling open its jaws, and ripping up its throat. If a python
attacks a Mias, he seizes it with his hands, and then bites it,
and soon kills it. The Mias is very strong; there is no animal in
the jungle so strong as he."

It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, and
of such a high type of form as the Orangutan, should be confined
to so limited a district--to two islands, and those almost the
last inhabited by the higher Mammalia; for, east of Borneo and
Java, the Quadrumania, Ruminants, Carnivora, and many other
groups of Mammalla diminish rapidly, and soon entirely disappear.
When we consider, further, that almost all other animals have in
earlier ages been represented by allied yet distinct forms--
that, in the latter part of the tertiary period, Europe was
inhabited by bears, deer, wolves, and cats; Australia by
kangaroos and other marsupials; South America by gigantic sloths
and ant-eaters; all different from any now existing, though
intimately allied to them--we have every reason to believe that
the Orangutan, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla have also had
their forerunners. With what interest must every naturalist look
forward to the time when the caves and tertiary deposits of the
tropics may be thoroughly examined, and the past history and
earliest appearance of the great man-like apes be made known at
length.

I will now say a few words as to the supposed existence of a
Bornean Orang as large as the Gorilla. I have myself examined the
bodies of seventeen freshly-killed Orangs, all of which were
carefully measured; and of seven of them, I preserved the
skeleton. I also obtained two skeletons killed by other persons.
Of this extensive series, sixteen were fully adult, nine being
males, and seven females. The adult males of the large Orangs
only varied from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height,
measured fairly to the heel, so as to give the height of the
animal if it stood perfectly erect; the extent of the
outstretched arms, from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches; and
the width of the face, from 10 inches to 13 1/2 inches. The
dimensions given by other naturalists closely agree with mine.
The largest Orang measured by Temminck was 4 feet high. Of
twenty-five specimens collected by Schlegel and Muller, the
largest old male was 4 feet 1 inch; and the largest skeleton in
the Calcutta Museum was, according to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet 1 1/2
inch. My specimens were all from the northwest coast of Borneo;
those of the Dutch from the west and south coasts; and no
specimen has yet reached Europe exceeding these dimensions,
although the total number of skins and skeletons must amount to
over a hundred.

Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they have
measured Orangs of a much larger size. Temminck, in his Monograph
of the Orang, says that he has just received news of the capture
of a specimen 5 feet 3 inches high. Unfortunately, it never seems
to have a reached Holland, for nothing has since been heard of
any such animal. Mr. St. John, in his "Life in the Forests of the
Far East," vol. ii. p. 237, tells us of an Orang shot by a friend
of his, which was 5 feet 2 inches from the heel to the top of the
head, the arm 17 inches in girth, and the wrist 12 inches! The
head alone was brought to Sarawak, and Mr. St. John tells us that
he assisted to measure this, and that it was 15 inches broad by
14 long. Unfortunately, even this skull appears not to have been
preserved, for no specimen corresponding to these dimensions has
yet reached England.

In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October 1857 in which he
acknowledges the receipt of my Papers on the Orang, published in
the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," he sends me the
measurements of a specimen killed by his nephew, which I will
give exactly as I received it: "September 3rd, 1867, killed
female Orangutan. Height, from head to heel, 4 feet 6 inches.
Stretch from fingers to fingers across body, 6 feet 1 inch.
Breadth of face, including callosities, 11 inches." Now, in these
dimensions, there is palpably one error; for in every Orang yet
measured by any naturalist, an expanse of arms of 6 feet 1 inch
corresponds to a height of about 3 feet 6 inches, while the
largest specimens of 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches high, always have
the extended arms as much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches.
It is, in fact, one of the characters of the genus to have the
arms so long that an animal standing nearly erect can rest its
fingers on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inches would
therefore require a stretch of arms of at least 8 feet! If it
were only 6 feet to that height, as given in the dimensions
quoted, the animal would not be an Orang at all, but a new genus
of apes, differing materially in habits and mode of progression.
But Mr. Johnson, who shot this animal, and who knows Orangs well,
evidently considered it to be one; and we have therefore to judge
whether it is more probable that he made a mistake of two feet in
the stretch of the arms, or of one foot in the height. The latter
error is certainly the easiest to make, and it will bring his
animal into agreement, as to proportions and size, with all those
which exist in Europe. How easy it is to be deceived as to the
height of these animals is well shown in the case of the Sumatran
Orang, the skin of which was described by Dr. Clarke Abel. The
captain and crew who killed this animal declared that when alive
he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they
thought he was 7 feet high; but that, when he was killed and lay
upon the ground, they found he was only about 6 feet. Now it will
hardly be credited that the skin of this identical animal exists
in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr. Blyth, the late curator, states
"that it is by no means one of the largest size"; which means
that it is about 4 feet high!

Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of
Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St. John's friend
made a similar error of measurement, or rather, perhaps, of
memory; for we are not told that the dimensions were noted down
at the time they were made. The only figures given by Mr. St.
John on his own authority are that "the head was 15 inches broad
by 14 inches long." As my largest male was 13 1/2 broad across
the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I can quite
understand that when the head arrived at Sarawak from the Batang
Lupar, after two or three days' voyage, it was so swollen by
decomposition as to measure an inch more than when it was fresh.
On the whole, therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up to
this time we have not the least reliable evidence of the
existence of Orangs in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 inches high.

CHAPTER V.

BORNEO--JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.

(NOVEMBER 1855 TO JANUARY 1856.)

As the wet season was approaching, I determined to return to
Sarawak, sending all my collections with Charles Allen around by
sea, while I myself proposed to go up to the sources of the
Sadong River and descend by the Sarawak valley. As the route was
somewhat difficult, I took the smallest quantity of baggage, and
only one servant, a Malay lad named Bujon, who knew the language
of the Sadong Dyaks, with whom he had traded. We left the mines
on the 27th of November, and the next day reached the Malay
village of Gúdong, where I stayed a short time to buy fruit and
eggs, and called upon the Datu Bandar, or Malay governor of the
place. He lived in a large, arid well-built house, very dirty
outside and in, and was very inquisitive about my business, and
particularly about the coal-mines. These puzzle the natives
exceedingly, as they cannot understand the extensive and costly
preparations for working coal, and cannot believe it is to be
used only as fuel when wood is so abundant and so easily
obtained. It was evident that Europeans seldom came here, for
numbers of women skeltered away as I walked through the village
and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had just brought
a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it down with a cry
of horror and alarm the moment she caught sight of me, turned
around and jumped into the stream. She swam beautifully, and kept
looking back as if expecting I would follow her, screaming
violently all the time; while a number of men and boys were
laughing at her ignorant terror.

At Jahi, the next village, the stream became so swift in
consequence of a flood, that my heavy boat could make no way, and
I was obliged to send it back and go on in a very small open one.
So far the river had been very monotonous, the banks being
cultivated as rice-fields, and little thatched huts alone
breaking the unpicturesque line of muddy bank crowned with tall
grasses, and backed by the top of the forest behind the
cultivated ground. A few hours beyond Jahi we passed the limits
of cultivation, and had the beautiful virgin forest coming down
to the water's edge, with its palms and creepers, its noble
trees, its ferns, and epiphytes. The banks of the river were,
however, still generally flooded, and we had some difficulty in
finding a dry spot to sleep on. Early in the morning we reached
Empugnan, a small Malay village, situated at the foot of an
isolated mountain which had been visible from the mouth of the
Simunjon River. Beyond here the tides are not felt, and we now
entered upon a district of elevated forest, with a finer
vegetation. Large trees stretch out their arms across the stream,
and the steep, earthy banks are clothed with ferns and
zingiberaceous plants.

Early in the afternoon we arrived at Tabókan, the first village
of the Hill Dyaks. On an open space near the river, about twenty
boys were playing at a game something like what we call
"prisoner's base;" their ornaments of beads and brass wire and
their gay-coloured kerchiefs and waist-cloths showing to much
advantage, and forming a very pleasing sight. On being called by
Bujon, they immediately left their game to carry my things up to
the "headhouse,"--a circular building attached to most Dyak
villages, and serving as a lodging for strangers, the place for
trade, the sleeping-room of the unmarried youths, and the general
council-chamber. It is elevated on lofty posts, has a large
fireplace in the middle and windows in the roof all round, and
forms a very pleasant and comfortable abode. In the evening it
was crowded with young men and boys, who came to look at me. They
were mostly fine young fellows, and I could not help admiring the
simplicity and elegance of their costume. Their only dress is
the long "chawat," or waist-cloth, which hangs down before and
behind. It is generally of blue cotton, ending in three broad
bands of red, blue, and white. Those who can afford it wear a
handkerchief on the head, which is either red, with a narrow
border of gold lace, or of three colours, like the "chawat." The
large flat moon-shaped brass earrings, the heavy necklace of
white or black beads, rows of brass rings on the arms and legs,
and armlets of white shell, all serve to relieve and set off the
pure reddish brown skin and jet-black hair. Add to this the
little pouch containing materials for betel-chewing, and a long
slender knife, both invariably worn at the side, and you have the
everyday dress of the young Dyak gentleman.

The "Orang Kaya," or rich man, as the chief of the tribe is
called, now came in with several of the older men; and the
"bitchara" or talk commenced, about getting a boat and men to
take me on the next morning. As I could not understand a word of
their language, which is very different from Malay, I took no
part in the proceedings, but was represented by my boy Bujon, who
translated to me most of what was said. A Chinese trader was in
the house, and he, too, wanted men the next day; but on his
hinting this to the Orang Kaya, he was sternly told that a white
man's business was now being discussed, and he must wait another
day before his could be thought about.

After the "bitchara "was over and the old chiefs gone, I asked
the young men to play or dance, or amuse themselves in their
accustomed way; and after some little hesitation they agreed to
do so. They first had a trial of strength, two boys sitting
opposite each other, foot being placed against foot, and a stout
stick grasped by both their hands. Each then tried to throw
himself back, so as to raise his adversary up from the ground,
either by main strength or by a sudden effort. Then one of the
men would try his strength against two or three of the boys; and
afterwards they each grasped their own ankle with a hand, and
while one stood as firm as he could, the other swung himself
around on one leg, so as to strike the other's free leg, and try
to overthrow him. When these games had been played all around with
varying success, we had a novel kind of concert. Some placed a
leg across the knee, and struck the fingers sharply on the ankle,
others beat their arms against their sides like a cock when he
is going to crow, this making a great variety of clapping sounds,
while another with his hand under his armpit produced a deep
trumpet note; and, as they all kept time very well, the effect
was by no means unpleasing. This seemed quite a favourite
amusement with them, and they kept it up with much spirit.

The next morning we started in a boat about thirty feet long, and
only twenty-eight inches wide. The stream here suddenly changes
its character. Hitherto, though swift, it had been deep and
smooth, and confined by steep banks. Now it rushed and rippled
over a pebbly, sandy, or rocky bed, occasionally forming
miniature cascades and rapids, and throwing up on one side or the
other broad banks of finely coloured pebbles. No paddling could
make way here, but the Dyaks with bamboo poles propelled us along
with great dexterity and swiftness, never losing their balance in
such a narrow and unsteady vessel, though standing up and
exerting all their force. It was a brilliant day, and the
cheerful exertions of the men, the rushing of the sparkling
waters, with the bright and varied foliage, which from either
bank stretched over our heads, produced an exhilarating sensation
which recalled my canoe voyages on the grander waters of South
America.

Early in the afternoon we reached the village of Borotói, and,
though it would have been easy to reach the next one before
night, I was obliged to stay, as my men wanted to return and
others could not possibly go on with me without the preliminary
talking. Besides, a white man was too great a rarity to be
allowed to escape them, and their wives would never have forgiven
them if, when they returned from the fields, they found that such
a curiosity had not been kept for them to see. On entering the
house to which I was invited, a crowd of sixty or seventy men,
women, and children gathered around me, and I sat for half an hour
like some strange animal submitted for the first time to the gaze
of an inquiring public. Brass rings were here in the greatest
profusion, many of the women having their arms completely covered
with them, as well as their legs from the ankle to the knee.
Round the waist they wear a dozen or more coils of fine rattan
stained red, to which the petticoat is attached. Below this are
generally a number of coils of brass wire, a girdle of small
silver coins, and sometimes a broad belt of brass ring armour. On
their heads they wear a conical hat without a crown, formed of
variously coloured beads, kept in shape by rings of rattan, and
forming a fantastic but not unpicturesque headdress.

Walking out to a small hill near the village, cultivated as a
rice-field, I had a fine view of the country, which was becoming
quite hilly, and towards the south, mountainous. I took bearings
and sketches of all that was visible, an operation which caused
much astonishment to the Dyaks who accompanied me, and produced
a request to exhibit the compass when I returned. I was then
surrounded by a larger crowd than before, and when I took my
evening meal in the midst of a circle of about a hundred
spectators anxiously observing every movement and criticising
every mouthful, my thoughts involuntarily recurred to the lion
at feeding time. Like those noble animals, I too was used to it,
and it did not affect my appetite. The children here were more
shy than at Tabokan, and I could not persuade them to play. I
therefore turned showman myself, and exhibited the shadow of a
dog's head eating, which pleased them so much that all the
village in succession came out to see it. The "rabbit on the
wall" does not do in Borneo, as there is no animal it resembles.
The boys had tops shaped something like whipping-tops, but spun
with a string.

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