An Orang Hunt in Borneo 175 



stopping over night at the last Dyak house. This happened to 

 be situated within four or five miles of a "gunong," or hill, and 

 the Dyaks thought that an orang, or mias as they called it, might 

 be obtained there. So, accompanied by a locally celebrated Dyak 

 hunter named Pasang, the Orang Kaya (head man of the vil- 

 lage), and ''Kadir," my Malay guide, we started early in the 

 morning following what, by courtesy, the Dyaks called a road. 

 This consisted of a row of poles from half an inch to two or 

 three inches in diameter, placed end to end over the worst places 

 in the swamp. One is supposed to walk these as a rope walker 

 does a rope. This my barefooted companions did very success- 

 fully. I soon got so that I could balance myself fairly well, but 

 about once in every hundred rods would slip and go in up to the 

 hips. We finally reached the hill and then divided into two 

 parties, Pasang going on one side of the hill, we on the other. 

 Many nests were seen and any number of small monkeys, but no- 

 orangs. About noon however we heard a faint signal which the 

 Orang Kaya said was from Pasang. Half an hour later we found 

 him carefully following two mias, which he had met far down in 

 the swamp, and wdiich he had tried to kill with his old flintlock. 

 In this he had failed, and as the orangs had quickly fled to the 

 high trees, they were quite safe from the clumsy bullets of Pa- 

 sang's old gun. A fine male orang in one of the highest trees was 

 now pointed out to me. I had .with me both a 38- and a 45-cali- 

 ber rifle, and not wishing to injure the skeleton more than was 

 necessary, I took the 38 and fired. The orang uttered a low growl 

 and hastily made off through the treetops. This caused great ex- 

 citement and fearing to lose him, I quickly took the 45 Winchester 

 from one of the men, and as the orang was swinging himself 

 along hand over hand, aimed at his huge hairy breast and fired. 

 For a moment he hung there, and then came crashing down, a dis- 

 tance of 80 feet or more, falling with a loud thud, and with 

 such force as to break several bones. The fall knocked out of 

 him what little life he had, so we went up to him immediately. 

 What a fine fellow ! Not one of the very largest, but a well- 

 grown orang weighing more than one hundred pounds, with 

 hair several inches long hanging from his arms and shoulders. 

 We admired him for a moment then turned our attention 

 to his mate which we soon found and brought down. Elated with 

 our success we bound the animals up and started home, Pasang 



