502 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness. 

 he fell forward on his face. The body shook convulsively for a 

 few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, and 

 then all was quiet — death had done its work, and I had leisure 

 to examine the huge body. It proved to be five feet eight 

 inches high, and the muscular development of the arms and 

 breast showed what immense strength he had possessed.' 



Deep in the swampy forests of Sumatra and Borneo, lives the 

 famous Uran, or ' Mias ' as he is called by the Malays. He is 

 less human in his shape than the chimpanzee, as his hind-legs are 

 shorter and his arms so long that they reach to his ankles, but 

 in intelligence he is supposed to be his superior. The jaws are 

 more projecting, and the thick pouting lips add to the brutal 

 expression of his physiognomy. While in a well-proportioned 

 human face the distance from the chin to the nose forms but a 

 third of the total length, it amounts to one- half in the uran. 

 But little of the restlessness of the monkey is to be seen in 

 him. He loves an indolent repose, and the necessity for pro- 

 curing food seems alone capable of rousing him from his lazi- 

 ness. When satiated, he immediately resumes his favourite 

 position, sitting for hours together upon a branch, with bent 

 back, with eyes immovably staring upon the ground, and 

 uttering from time to time a melancholy growl. He generally 

 spends the night on the crown of a nibong-palm or of a screw 

 pine : he often also seeks a refuge against the wind and cold 

 among the orchids and ferns which cover the branches of the 

 giant trees. There he spreads his couch of small twigs and 

 leaves, for he distinguishes himself from all other apes by his 

 not sleeping in a sitting position, but on the back or on one 

 side, and in inclement weather he is even said to cover his 

 body with a layer of foliage. The Dyaks affirm that the Mias 

 is never attacked by other animals, except by the crocodile and 

 the tiger-snake. When there are no fruits in the jungle, he 

 goes to the river banks, where he finds many young shoots 

 which he likes to eat, and fruits which grow near to the water. 

 Then the crocodile sometimes tries to seize him, but the Mias 

 springs upon it, lacerates and kills it. An old Dyak chieftain 

 told Mr. Wallace that he had once witnessed a combat of this 

 kind, in which the Mias is invariably the conqueror. W^hen 

 attacked by a tiger-snake, he seizes the reptile with his hands 



