THE MAMMALIA, 55 



human, and not those of any species of ape." I quote from 

 memory. The thought and the hope have haunted me ever 

 since, " Should we in the Soko find a type resembhng Miocene 

 man, or at least more human in brain and in habits than any 

 other anthropoid ape ? " But no one else seems to be curious as 

 to what might prove to be the value of an examination of this 

 ape, with a " head covered w^ith grey fur," whose " skull was 

 undoubtedly human " ! 



The Jackoons of Borneo represent a race of human beings, 

 remarkably simian in appearance and habits, living on platforms 

 built in trees. The account of them, given by " Theresa, Lady 

 Yelverton," was of extreme interest. She went to a wedding of 

 Jackoons, under the auspices of a Roman Catholic priest^ and 

 expresses a lively sense of the horror of " seeing monkeys 

 married," and of the grotesque effect of a surpliced choir of these 

 queer aborigines. If Lady Yelverton is not considered a reliable 

 authority, why does not some professional anthropologist go to 

 Borneo and examine these human " monkeys " ? 



Traditions have existed from the earliest ages of a race of men 

 on the borders of China, with opposable great toes. They are 

 mentioned in the ancient annals of China, and spoken of in 

 modern times, yet no one attempts to see if the tradition is true 

 or false. The Ainos, the hairy aborigines of Japan, are indeed 

 being closely examined before their rapidly-approaching extinction 

 has taken place. And it has been ascertained that the Ainos 

 have so far diverged from the Japanese, that the children of 

 unions between the two races are usually infertile, and die out in 

 the second or third generation. They have, in short, diverged far 

 enough from each other to come under the mysterious law which 

 decrees the sterility of hybrids. Man himself, I believe, was 

 never truly an arboreal animal. He was capable of climbing into 

 trees for safety and building platforms thereon, as he does now\ 

 But. he was a plantigrade animal, living on the ground, and 

 making a home in caves. I believe that the foot of laan repre- 

 sents a more primitive form than that of existing apes and 

 monkeys, and that it never passed through the prehensile stage, 

 which is characteristic of the foot of existing lemurs, monkeys, 

 and apes. The great toe is more prehensile w^ith other races of 



