COLLECTING AROUND SIMUJAN. 381 



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lage, and gave me a pressing invitation to make them a long visit. 

 I determined to accept it as soon as I bad worked up the Sadong 

 region sufficiently, and told them they might expect me in a few 

 weeks. 



The baby orang mentioned at the end of the preceding chapter 

 became a striking example of the survival of the fittest. While my 

 first two captives were vicious to the last degree, and died promptly, 

 without repentance, my third pet turned out to be all that heart of 

 man could desire in an orang. He was by no means a thing of 

 beauty, but he certainly w-as a joy forever. 



Judged by our standard of human beauty, he was perhaps as 

 ugly as any healthy child could be and live ; but, for all that, his 

 homeliness was interesting ; it seemed to conform to a general plan 

 of ugliness, and nothing was lacking to make it perfect. But^ 

 judged by the standard of anthropoid beauty, he was as handsome 

 and wholesome a little orang as ever climbed. His eyes were large, 

 bright and full of intelligence, and he had a forehead like a philos- 

 opher. 



Because of his bald and shiny head, his solemn, wrinkled and 

 melancholy visage, his air of profound gravity and senatorial wis- 

 dom, we got to calling him the Old Man, and forgot to give him any 

 Christian name. A thin growth of brick-red hair grew straight up 

 the back of his head and over the crown, making, in certain lights, 

 a perfect halo around his bald, brown pate, reminding one rather 

 forcibly of certain pictures by the old masters. 



I measirred him, for the first time, on October 15th, in spite of 

 his vigorous opposition, and found that his height was 21f inches, 

 extent of arms 31|- inches, and his weight 10|^ pounds. His body 

 was short and thick, and, like all orangs, his arms were so long and 

 his legs so short that by stooping forward a little, his hands easily 

 touched the ground. In walking, he invariably went on all fours, 

 placing the back of the fingers and ball of the thumb, instead of 

 the palm, upon the ground, and he also turned his toes under. His 

 gait on the ground was very much like that of a man going on 

 crutches with both feet injui'ed ahke. On the ground he moved 

 slowly, seeming quite out of his element, but his feats in climbing 

 and his performances on the slack-rope were highly entertaining. 



He was fresh from the jungle when brought to me, but I soon 

 convinced him that my intentions were honorable, and slowly gained 

 his confidence. For three or four days he would not allow me to 

 hold him in my arms unless I would let him grasp some firm object 



