402 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



certain that each individual differs as widely from his fellows, and 

 has as many facial peculiarities belonging to himself, as can be 

 found in the individuals of any unmixed race of human beings. 



Male orangs are much given to fighting, and often bite off each 

 other's fingers and toes. The upper lip, also, is often found in a 

 mutilated condition from the same cause. I have never heard of 

 their biting off each other's ears, as human roughs do occasionally, 

 but a few hundred years more of evolution may bring theii- intelli- 

 gence up to that point. Indeed, may we not confidently j)redict 

 that this is the next step in intellectual development the orang will 

 take, if he is ever to approach nearer to man. 



It is the natural instinct of an orang to seize and bring the of- 

 fending hand of another to its mouth, instead of moving its own 

 heavy head and body to the object. Thus, in every imaginable 

 way do the powerful and capable limbs and hands serve the inert 

 body and head upon all occasions. 



The battered condition of one of my male specimens has already 

 been described (Chapter XXXI.) ; another orang. No. 34, male 

 Wurmbii, had almost lost the edge of his entire upper lip. It had 

 been bitten diagonally across, but still adhered at the left comer, 

 and the wound had evidently healed very quickly, for that trian- 

 gular piece of upper lip still hung dangling down two inches from 

 the corner of his mouth. He had also lost an entire fingex". 



No. 36 had lost a j)iece out of his upper lip, and one of his left 

 toes had been bitten quite off. 



Dui'ing the fruit season, which is from the middle of Januaiy 

 to the first of May, the food of the orang is the durian, mangosteen, 

 and rambutan, which are usually found upon the hills. There are 

 also other fruits which ripen at different times, such as the raso and* 

 kapaj'ang, but of the former the orangs eat the shoots only. Be- 

 sides these, they devour the shoots of the Pandanus, and also the 

 leaves of certain trees. During the months of May, June, and 

 July, they retire far into the depths of the forest and are exceed- 

 ingly difl&cult to find, but during the season of the heaviest rains, 

 i.e., from August to November, when the forests are quite flooded, 

 they are found in the vicinity of the rivers. 



The orang is quite solitary in his habits, the old males always 

 being found alone ; nor are two adult females ever found together. 

 On two occasions I found three individuals together, but one was 

 an old female with a nursing infant, and the third was her next 

 oldest offspi-ing, apparently about a year and a half old, who had 



