IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



times I added a little arack ; but I soon had to careful with the 

 latter remedy, for the number of my patients increased instead of 

 diminishing. 



My out-patients having all been attended to, I went to sit up 

 for deer by moonlight in a " lanko " which commanded a small 

 plain surrounded by bushes, where the grass was very long and 

 thick. The deer ought to have come here to feed, but the only 

 thing that did come was clouds of mosquitoes, which, had I had 

 any desire to sleep, would have effectually rendered it impossible, 

 while, if they were not sufficient, the floor, formed as it was of 

 large stakes, placed side by side, was not of such a nature as to 

 tempt to drowsiness. 



On the 25th I again went in search of plants towards the plain. 

 From the hill I had noted all the localities where clumps of trees 

 still stood, and each day I proposed visiting one. 



Towards evening a Chinese hunter brought me the first orang- 

 utan, but it was so mauled and covered with parang cuts that I 

 did not skin it. Mayas were apparently far from being scarce 

 in the neighbourhood of Marop, and I felt certain that I should 

 soon be able to get better specimens. This one was a female of the 

 kind named " Mayas Kassa " by the Dyaks, who distinguish several 

 varieties or kinds of the orang-utan. The hair on the body was red, 

 the skin beneath was of a deep copper colour ; the face was much 

 darker — a blackish-olive. 



Next day I went into the jungle in search of Mayas with the 

 Chinaman who had brought me the one above mentioned. Never- 

 theless, I was not favoured by fortune, and we wandered for four hours 

 in the forest without seeing a single animal of the kind. When I got 

 back I found another Chinaman waiting for me with a second Mayas, 

 very similar to the first, but rather smaller. It was also a female 

 of the Kassa variety, and it had still attached to it its little baby 

 son, which had remained clinging to the mother when she fell 

 wounded. In the fall the poor little creature had broken its left 

 humerus. I prepared the skin of the mother, who had received a 

 single bullet in the head, and had broken the bones of both arms in 

 falling. 1 None of my men were proficient in taxidermy, and I was 

 thus obliged to do nearly all the work myself, to tell the truth, not 

 too willingly. I had decided, however, to devote a whole month to 

 orang-utans, and to preserve a complete series of these most inter- 

 esting animals, both skins and skeletons, so I set to work at once 

 without more ado. As I was eating my supper in the evening, the 



1 The following were the dimensions of this specimen : — 



From the vertex of head to the end of the coccyx . . oyo m. 



From the vertex to the soles of the feet . . . i"o8 ,, 



Across the outstretched arms . . . . . i"86 „ 



Circumference of thorax at bottom of sternum . . 071 „ 



. 144 



