44 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



of the swine. The dancing -grounds of the Argus 

 Pheasant present a very similar appearance, but are 

 a good deal smaller. 



The young of SMS vernicosns are striped with rusty- 

 red, but the stripes disappear as soon as the young 

 are old enough to look after themselves. In the 

 young pig the upper lip on each side is deeply 

 notched to accommodate the tushes which, however, 

 have not yet made their appearance. This is an in- 

 teresting point, for we must suppose that the notching 

 of the lip was originally brought about by the hyper- 

 trophy of the tushes, whereas the notches now ante- 

 date their original cause by several months. An 

 argument more favourable to Lamarckism could not 

 well be found. 



The Mouse-Deer, or Plandok, of which there are 

 two species in Borneo, Tragulus napu and T. javanicus, 

 is the hero of many native beast stories which bear 

 the closest resemblance to the " Brer Rabbit" tales 

 of the American negro. Just as Brer Rabbit outwits 

 animals stronger than himself, such as the Wolf and 

 Fox, but in turn is outwitted by animals weaker than 

 himself, such as the Tortoise, so does the Plandok gull 

 the Deer, the Pig, and the Bear, and is deceived by the 

 Tortoise and the Hermit-crab. Anthropologists can 

 quote scores of such parallels in folk-lore, existing 

 amongst widely sundered races, and attention will be 

 called to one or two in a later chapter of this book. 

 Of the instance quoted above only this need be said : 

 The Brer Rabbit stories originated in West Africa, 

 where there is an indigenous species of Hare; through 

 the channel of slavery the stories were carried to 

 North America, and the characters, though not the 



