THE MAN-LIKE APES. 47 



loTis activity characteristic of the Gibbons. Hunger alone 

 seems to stir him to exertion, and when it is stilled, he 

 relapses into repose. When the animal sits, it curves its 

 back and bows its head, so as to look straight down on 

 the ground ; sometimes it holds on with its hands by a 

 higher branch, sometimes lets them hang phlegmatically 

 down by its side — and in these positions the Orang will 

 remain, for hours together, in the same spot, almost with- 

 out stirring, and only now and then giving utterance to 

 its deep, growling voice. By day,- he usually climbs from 

 one tree-top to another, and only at night descends to the 

 ground, and if then threatened with danger, he seeks ref- 

 uge among the underwood. "When not hunted, he re- 

 mains a long time in the same locality, and sometimes 

 stops for many days on the same tree — a firm place among 

 its branches serving him for a bed. It is rare for the 

 Orang to pass the night in the summit of a large tree, 

 probably because it is too windy and cold there for him ; 

 but, as soon as night draws on, he descends from the 

 height and seeks out a fit bed in the lower and darker 

 part, or in the leafy top of a small tree, among which he 

 prefers Mbong Palms, Pandani, or one of those parasitic 

 Orchids which give the primaeval forests of Borneo so 

 characteristic and striking an appearance. But wherever 

 he determines to sleep, there he prepares himself a sort of 

 nest : Kttle boughs and leaves are di-awn together round 

 the selected spot, and bent crosswise over one another ; 

 while to make the bed soft, great leaves of Ferns, of Or- 

 chids, of Pandanus fascimolaris^ Wijpa fruticans, &c., are 

 laid over them. Those which Miiller saw, many of them 

 being very fresh, were situated at a height of ten to twen- 

 ty-five feet above the ground, and had a circumference, on 

 the average, of two or three feet. Some were packed 

 many inches thick with Pandamis leaves ; others were 



