48 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



remarkable only for the cracked twigs, which, united in a 

 common centre, formed a regular platform. " The rude 

 hut^^ says Sir James Brooke, " which they are stated to 

 build in the trees, would be more properly called a seat or 

 nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility 

 with which they form this nest is curious, and I had an 

 opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the 

 branches together and seat herself, within a minute." 



According to the Dyaks the Orang rarely leaves his 

 bed before the sun is well above the horizon and has dissi- 

 pated the mists. He gets up about nine, and goes to bed 

 again about five ; but sometimes not till late in the twilight. 

 He lies sometimes on his back ; or, by way of change, 

 turns on one side or the other, drawing his limbs up to 

 his body, and resting his head on his hand. When the 

 night is cold, windy, or rainy, he usually covers his body 

 with a heap of Pandanus^ Nijpa, or Fern leaves, like 

 those of which his bed is made, and he is especially care- 

 ful to wrap up his head in them. It is this habit of cover- 

 ing himself up which has probably led to the fable that 

 the Orang builds huts in the trees. 



Although the Orang resides mostly amid the boughs 

 of great trees, during the daytime, he is very rarely seen 

 squatting on a thick branch as other apes and particularly 

 the Gibbons, do. The Orang, on the contrary, confines him- 

 self to the slender leafy branches, so that he is seen right at 

 the top of the trees, a mode of life which is closely related 

 to the constitution of his hinder limbs, and especially to 

 that of his seat. For this is provided with no callosities, 

 such as are possessed by many of the lower apes, and even 

 by the Gibbons ; and those bones of the pelvis, which are 

 termed the ischia, and which form the solid framework of 

 the surface on which the body rests in the sitting posture, 



