370 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



tween liis hands and feet after they were tied together. This was a 

 veiy old male, " mias rombi " (Simia satyrus), without the expanded 

 cheeks. He was much emaciated, and the Malays said he had jun- 

 gle fever, which really seemed to be the case. The Malays shot 

 him in the ankle, and, being too weak to climb fast, he fell an easy 

 prey and was taken alive. 



Had he been unhurt I would gladly have kept him alive, but I 

 am averse to prolonging the sufferings of hopelessly wounded ani- 

 mals under any pretext, or keeping any animal in painful and bar- 

 barous captivity. So I quickly thrust the point of my knife into 

 the occiput of the half-dead animal, pierced his medulla oblongata, 

 and, with a hoarse growl, he instantly expu'ed. This specimen 

 measured four feet four inches in height from head to heel, and 

 eight feet between the tips of his fingers with the arms extended. 



Two hoiu'S later, the httle baby orang relieved me of all anxiety 

 on its account by dying. Blou drj'ly remarked that it had found 

 dying was getting fashionable with the mias and it wanted to go 

 Avith the rest This made seven dead orangs, big and httle, to skin 

 and skeletonize in one day ! I had adult specimens of both species, 

 male and female, and two yovmg ones ; and, by a happy coincidence, 

 the Chinese, Dyaks and Malays had almost made a dead heat in the 

 race after specimens. 



There are many good people who are at a loss to understand 

 how a naturalist "can bear to skin and cut up dead animals," no 

 matter how rare and interesting they are. Many wonder how he 

 can have " an appetite to eat," and cry out in holy horror at sight 

 of the raw flesh under his knife. Well, tastes differ, that's alL As 

 for myself, I would not have exchanged the pleasures of that day, 

 when we had those seven orangs to dissect, for a box at the opera 

 the whole season through. 



It is a pity that men who " don't see how you can do it " could 

 not have been there on that memorable occasion. When we finished, 

 there was a small mountain of orang flesh, a long row of ghastly, 

 grinning skeletons, and big, red-haired skins enough to have car- 

 peted a good-sized room. I forgot to eat, and did not think of 

 sleeping till after midnight. It was the most valuable day's work I 

 ever did, for the specimens we preserved were worth, unmounted, 

 not less than eight hundred dollars. 



It was fortunate that we had such excellent faciHties for drying 

 skins as the open space at the back of the house afforded. I ap- 

 plied the preservatives myself to every skin and skeleton, and 



