142 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



Then Omar grabbed a club and pounded the orang's 

 arm; the pulling stopped, and I realized that I was 

 being dragged away from the nets. For several 

 minutes I was too groggy to know what was hap- 

 pening, but the idea that the natives might kill the 

 orang-outangs while I was disabled made me sit up. 

 They were standing there, looking first at me and 

 then at the animals, wondering what to do. I told 

 them I was all right and I began feeling my leg. 

 It was not broken, but it had been so badly wrenched 

 that I could not stand on it. 



While I sat on the ground directing the work, 

 the men gathered the outside meshes of the nets 

 and ran a rope through them. Then, as the other 

 ropes were loosened, they pulled the noose close, and 

 the two brutes were in a sack. For the first time, 

 I had an opportunity to examine our catch; they 

 were the two biggest orang-outangs ever captured 

 in Borneo. 



Gradually they exhausted themselves and gave 

 up the struggle. They peered out through the 

 meshes, snarling at the men who came near them 

 and sometimes shooting out a long arm with the 

 fingers opening and closing. The natives squatted 

 about in a circle, watching the animals and laugh- 

 ing. 



When the men had rested, I had them build two 

 litters of boughs one for the dead man and the 

 other for me. Then we strung the net on three 

 long poles, to be carried by twelve men, and started 



