6 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



as distinct species or merely as local races, but the 

 following remarks apply to a uniformly grey form, 

 known as Hylobates mulleri, which is common through- 

 out the greater part of Sarawak. The Gibbons go 

 about in large herds ; their cry is extremely musical, 

 and in the early morning the jungle fairly rings with 

 it. I know no more joyous sound in nature than 

 the delightful bubbling shouts of these creatures, and 

 he must be indeed a confirmed slug-a-bed who can 

 resist their call to be up and doing in the most 

 delicious hours of the tropical day. The Malay and 

 Kayan names for the Gibbon Wa-wa and Wok are 

 onomatopoeic in that they represent two notes of the 

 series of whistles and hoots that the animals utter. 

 Forbes, in his Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern 

 Archipelago, has endeavoured to represent graphically 

 the cry of the Gibbon, but I know of no instrument 

 on which the cry can be well imitated except a simple 

 thing made by the Kayans out of a bamboo-joint and 

 known as Buloh Wok ; with this the cries can be 

 imitated with such great exactitude that the apes are 

 often decoyed within a few yards of the performer. 



Gibbons make excellent pets, and are kept by natives 

 as well as by Europeans. The manner in which they 

 can swing from rafter to rafter in a native house gives 

 some idea of their perfect adaptation to an arboreal 

 life a life for which they are much better adapted 

 than are the larger and heavier Maias, Chimpanzee, and 

 Gorilla. On the ground the Gibbon can progress in an 

 erect posture, but the arms are always carried aloft, 

 apparently to maintain the balance, and the gait is 

 rather staggering and uncertain. In intelligence the 

 Gibbon ranks far below the other anthropoids, and its 



