A TWO MONTHS' LEAVE IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 11 



A who- whoop brought up our valiant guide and the rest of the 

 party, who had deemed discretion the better part of valour. 

 The elephants had most obligingly led us round towards the 

 river during our three hours' run, and we now found ourselves 

 about half a mile from the boat, and not sorry to be saved a 

 long game of " hunting heel " — our general way of getting back 

 to our starting-point. 



For the next three days we moved up the river with every 

 flood-tide, in order to reach Tuauko's territory, where, we were 

 told, we were certain to kill buffalo. Sunday we did not go 

 ashore, but during the ebb we landed for an hour or two on 

 Monday (Sept. 18), and came across the haunts of the jungle- 

 men. Their houses — by which title the interpreter dignified 

 the few leaves and branches thrown over a horizontal pole — 

 were littered with ovster shells, remains of roots, fruit, &c. We 

 tried hard to find some of the individuals themselves, but did 

 not succeed. These jungle-men are most extraordinary crea- 

 tures ; and it is still a disputed point as to whether they are 

 really men or monkeys. They certainly have these huts, and 

 are generally followed by a lot of dogs ; they will also eat the 

 flesh of the dead elephants. As far as we could make out from 

 the Malays, they always avoid men if possible ; but the natives do 

 not fear coming in contact with them; they call them "orang 

 outang," but that only means " wild man " in Malay, though it 

 would represent monkey to our ideas.* 



During the next night, and while lying at anchor, we heard 

 something moving on shore close to the bank of the river, 

 which we supposed to be either an elephant or buffalo. We 

 went on shore at daylight, and found it to have been a 

 rhinoceros by the tracks, which we followed up for some hours ; 

 but, unfortunately, getting separated, had to give up the pur- 

 suit, though at one time we must have been within one minute 

 of him, for the mud rubbed on to the grass from his feet had 

 not had time to dry. 



* Written some years before the attention of the public was called to the wild 

 men by Miss Bird, in her " Golden Chersonese." 



