THE MAN-SHAPED APES— ORANG-UTAN. 



21 



WHITE-HANDED GIBBONS.— These active and prettv animals are 

 found in Terrasserim, southwest of Burmah, and are noted for their loud 

 voices. Troops of them will get together in the deep forests and fill the 

 air with their not unmusical cries for hours at a time. A white band of hair 

 encircles the entire face and the body is black, dark-brown or ochre-brown. 

 These interesting creatures drink water from the palms of their hands, are 

 readily tamed in India but do not long survive foreign captivity. The artist 

 represents them in the picture mounted on a favorite tree, suspiciously 

 regarding some approaching object. {Hylobates lar.) 



of these nests would be oftener found. The Dyaks 

 claim that in wet weather the Mias covers him- 

 self with pandanus leaves or large ferns. Perhaps 

 thfs is the origin of the belief that the Orang-utan 

 builds a hut in the trees in which to live. 



" The Orang-utan leaves his bed when the sun is 

 well above the horizon and has dried the dew on the 

 leaves. During the day he eats, but seldom visits 

 the same tree two days in succession. As far as I 

 could determine he feeds almost exclusively on fruit, 

 but occasionally on leaves and buds. In very rare 

 cases he descends to the ground ; probably only 

 when, driven by hunger, he looks for juicy young 

 leaves on the banks of a river ; or when in exceed- 



ingly dry weather he comes down for water, 

 which is usually supplied him sufficiently in the 

 hollows of leaves. Only once I saw two half- 

 grown Orangs on the ground in a dry hole. 

 They were standing erect, holding each other's 

 arms and playing. This Ape never walks up- 

 right, unless he holds to the branches of trees, 

 or is attacked. Pictures that represent him walk- 

 ing with the help of a stick are pure inventions. 

 " They do not seem to fear Men very much. 

 Nearly all of those I observed stared at me for 

 a few minutes and then deliberately repaired to 

 a tree in the neighborhood. It frequently hap- 

 pened when I saw one, that I had to go a thou- 

 sand paces or more after my gun ; nevertheless I 

 would find him on the same tree upon my return, 

 or within a hundred feet of the spot where 1 

 had first seen him. I never saw two full-grown 

 Orangs together, though males as well as females 

 sometimes are accompanied by half-grown young 

 ones. 



" All the Dyak chiefs, who had spent theii 

 lives in a country where the Orang abounds- 

 assured me that no animal was strong enough to 

 hurt one, and the only animal he fights with is the 

 Crocodile. When the Orang runs short of fruit, he 

 descends to the river banks to look for young shoots 

 and fruit. Then the Crocodile tries to seize him, but 

 the Orang jumps on it, beats it with hands and feet 

 and kills it. 



"Rarely does it happen that an Orang fights with 

 a human being. One day several Dyaks came to 

 tell me that one of these animals had nearly killed 

 a companion. His house was standing on the bank 

 of the river, and he saw an Orang-utan making a 

 meal of the young leaves of a palm. He frightened 

 him, and the Ape beat a retreat into the woods. A 



