THE ORANG-UTANS. 1 79 



young it is easily trained ; but never lives in captivity to attain 

 maturity. When attacked and hard driven by human enemies, 

 and it gets to close quarters with them, it can be a formidable 

 and dangerous antagonist, and has been known to fatally injure 

 its assailants. It will rarely, unprovoked, attack a man. " In 

 one case," as Dr. A. R. Wallace has recorded, " a female Mias on 

 a durian-tree kept up for at least ten minutes a continuous 

 shower of branches and of the heavy spined fruits as large as 

 32-pounders, which most effectively kept us clear of the tree 

 she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and throw- 

 ing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at 

 intervals a loud, pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mis- 

 chief." They fight and defend themselves with their hands, 

 and appear to seize and bite each other's fingers. Many of 

 the specimens shot in the forest of Borneo have lost one or 

 more of their fingers or toes ; and present scars on the face 

 (especially on the lips) and bodies from the teeth of their 

 antagonists. 



" When wounded he betakes himself to the highest attainable 

 point of the tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at first of 

 high notes, which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike 

 that of a panther. While giving out the high notes, the Orang 

 thrusts out his lips into a funnel shape ; but in uttering the low 

 notes he holds his mouth wide open, and at the same time 

 the great throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended." 

 (^Huxley.) 



The name given by the Dyaks to the larger species is "Mias 

 Pappan." There is, however, a smaller variety, which they de- 

 signate " Mias Kassu," of which Dr. Wallace has given an excel- 

 lent and detailed account. These Mias Kassu have no tumour- 

 like expansions on the sides of the head ; the median crest is 



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