A BABIRUSA COMMITS SUICIDE. 331 



advance of us had taken little rice. The controleur^ 

 therefore, thought we must make a third attempt to 

 reach the northern end of the island, notwithstand- 

 ing K.'s earnest entreaties to be only taken back to 

 Kema once more. We had not reached the narrows, 

 however, before we met the hukom with all his men 

 and dogs. They had found the surf so high that 

 the only way most of his men had been able to 

 reach their boats, was to run down the steep rocks 

 and plunge head foremost into the combing waves. 

 We now landed a few natives to scour the woods, 

 and finally come to the southern end of the island, 

 while we went round in the boats. In order to make 

 their way through the dense forest, instead of putting 

 on more clothing as a protection against the sticks and 

 stones and thorny vines, they stripped off what little 

 they wore, excej^t a narrow band over the loins. At 

 the southern end of the island was a small, deep bay, 

 and here we encamped for the third time. Soon the 

 natives came in, but they had secured only two wild 

 hogs. I i)reserved the skull of one, a female, in 

 which the canine teeth were not as lona; as those of 

 a male. The hukom declared that in the babirusa 

 only the males have the long cui-ved teeth, which the 

 Malays have fancied resemble the antlers of a deer. 

 While waiting for us, he had been hunting in the 

 vicinity of his camp, and had taken one female by 

 dri\dng her to the end of a high point. As soon as 

 she saAv there was no chance for her to escape, she 

 leaped down the precipice and was killed by the 

 fall. Such suicide, he says, is frequently resorted to 

 by that animal when it finds it can retreat no farther. 



