DOINGS IN THE ORANG-UTAK COUNTRY. 367 



moving and carefully cleaning the skins, we first treated them with 

 a liberal application of arsenical soap dissolved in a little water, and 

 then rubbed on all the powdered alum that would stick to the skin. 

 A pole was passed through the arms, and the skins were then hung 

 up to dry, the head and legs being distended with a little loose 

 straw or dry grass, and the skin of the body shghtly distended by 

 short sticks placed crosswise. 



In the hot, moist, bath-room air of Borneo a skin must dry im- 

 mediately or it spoils. If it is hung up loosely, or in folds so that 

 the air cannot reach both sides of the entire sm-face, the hair will 

 drop off all portions that do not dry quickly. I have ventured to 

 state the above facts for the reason that the ignorance of them, sim- 

 ple as they are, has entailed the loss of many a fine skin of orang, 

 chimpanzee, and gorilla. 



Orang skeletons, like all others, are prepared, in a rough state, 

 by carefully denuding them of flesh with a knife, but leaving the 

 bones of the various members attached to each other by their liga- 

 ments, anointing them with thin arsenical soap, then tying each 

 skeleton in a compact bundle and allowing it to dry in the shade. 



Being fully convinced that our best plan for hunting orangs lay 

 in making trips up and down the Simujan River we decided to re- 

 turn forthwith to Sadong, hunting on the way down. On the fol- 

 lowing morning we loaded our boats and took leave of the hospit- 

 able Dyaks. They were loud and long in their invitations to us 

 to come agaia and stop a long time, promising to do all they could 

 to help us find animals. Having comforted them with the assur- 

 ance that they would soon see us again, we embarked and set off. 



Soon after entering the river, we started several troops of pro- 

 boscis monkeys, but being just then in quest of grander game, 

 we let them go, promising to call and pay our respects a little 

 later. A little farther down we surprised an orang in the act of 

 taking a drink. He had climbed down within reach of the water 

 and hung at the foot of a stout sapling, dipping one hand into the 

 water, then holding it over his mouth and sucking the water off as 

 it dripped from the knuckles of his closed fingers. He was so 

 busily engaged that I got a good look at him with the glass before 

 he saw us. He was near the open water and I easily brought him 

 down with my rifle, after which we paddled our boat in to where 

 he fell and seciired him without even getting out. 



Three miles farther on I espied a baby orang up in a tree-top, 

 hanging to the small hmbs with out-stretched arms and legs, look- 



