THE ORANG-OUTANG. 99 



"All right," I replied. "If he offers to attack us, I 

 will stop him promptly with a bullet." 



It is true that one of my most ardent desires was to 

 obtain a skeleton of a fully developed orang-outang, but 

 I decided to postpone the gratification of it until I should 

 have watched the animal's movements in a state of ab- 

 solute freedom. I told my men to clap their hands and 

 shout, to scare him, but all he did was to sit and grind 

 his teeth ; and I was almost persuaded to try my Dyak's 

 advice, when the orang-outang coolly grasped a branch 

 hanging near, and swung himself slowly from tree to 

 tree without any apparent effort, about as fast as we 

 could walk beneath. We followed him until the dense 

 undergrowth made the path impracticable. An athlete 

 would have performed this trapeze act with, perhaps, 

 more grace, but nothing could surpass the indolent ease 

 with which he left us behind. 



This was my first interview with this peculiar animal ; 

 and the superstitious Dyak assured Thursday, relating 

 numerous parallel cases, that as I had not killed the 

 orang, the orang would certainly kill me. He said he 

 had know^n a great many travellers who had been at- 

 tacked by them and killed, and that I would soon join 

 their number, although he confessed that he had never 

 himself been present at such a misfortune. 



One morning, as I was returning from a long walk 

 through the woods in search of insects, one of my 

 boys came running toward me, shouting with excite- 



