TAILLESS TREE-CLIMBERS OF THE WILDS. 249 



leisurely through the forest. He walks deliberately along 

 the branches, in the semi-erect attitude which the great 

 length of his arms 

 and the shortness of 

 his legs give him. 

 Choosing a place 

 where the boughs of 

 an adjacent tree inter- 

 mingle, he seizes the 

 smaller twigs, pulls 

 them toward him, 

 grasps them, together 

 with those of the tree 

 he is on, and thus 

 forming a kind of 

 bridge swings himself 

 onward, and, seizing 

 hold of a thick branch 

 with his long arms, is in an instant walking along the op- 

 posite side of the tree. He never jumps or springs, or 

 even appears to hurry himself, and yet moves as quickly 

 as a man can run along the ground beneath. 



6. " The enemies of the orang are few in number. 

 The Dyaks are unanimous in their statements that the 

 mias never either attacks or is attacked by any animal, 

 with one exception, which is highly curious, and would 

 be hardly credible were it not confirmed by the testimony 

 of several independent parties who have been eye-witnesses 

 of the circumstance. The only animal the mias measures 

 his strength with is the crocodile. The account of the 

 natives is as follows : ' When there is little fruit in the 

 jungle, the mias goes to the river-side to eat the fruits 

 that grow there, and also the young shoots of some palm- 

 trees which are found on the water's edge. The crocodile 



JBornean Orang. 



