Habits and Food. 71 



they eat, so that there is a continual rain of rejected portions 

 below the tree they are feeding on. The durion is an espe- 

 cial favorite, and quantities of this delicious fruit are de- 

 stroyed wherever it grows surrounded by forest, but they 

 will not cross clearings to get at them. It seems wonderful 

 how the animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering 

 of which is so thick and tough, and closely covered with 

 strong conical spines. It probably bites off a few of these 

 first, and then making a small hole, tears open the fruit with 

 its powerful fingers. 



The mias rarely descends to the ground except when, 

 pressed by hunger, it seeks for succulent shoots by the river- 

 side, or, in very dry weather, has to search after water, of 

 which it generally finds sufticient in the hollows of leaves. 

 Once only I saw two half-grown orangs on the ground in 

 a dry hollow at the foot of the Simunjon hill. They were 

 playing together, standing erect, and grasping each other by 

 the arms. It may be safely stated, however, that the orang 

 never walks erect, unless when using its hands to support it- 

 self by branches overhead or when attacked. Representa- 

 tions of its walking with a stick are entirely imaginary. 



The Dyaks all declare that the mias is never attacked by 

 9,ny animal in the forest, with two rare exceptions ; and the 

 accounts I received of these are so curious that I give them 

 nearly in the words of my informants, old Dyak chiefs, who 

 had lived all their lives in the places where the animal is 

 most abundant. The first of whom I inquired said : " No 

 animal is strong enough to hurt the mias, and the only creat- 

 ure he ever fights with is the crocodile. When there is no 

 fruit in the jungle, he goes to seek food on the banks of the 

 rivei', where there are plenty of young shoots that he likes, 

 and fruits that grow close to the water. Then the crocodile 

 sometimes tries to seize him, but the mias gets upon him 

 and beats him with his hands and feet, and tears him and 

 kills him." He added that he had once seen such a fight, 

 and that he believes that the mias is always the victor. 



My next informant was the orang kaya, or chief of the 

 Balow Dyaks, on the Simunjon River. He said : " The mias 

 has no enemies j no animals dare attack it but the crocodile 

 and the python. He always kills the crocodile by main 



