THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
‘One might almost fancy that the various voices were arranged with a 
view to a concert effect. There is always one old gentleman with a very 
deep bass, who jerks out his howl after a swinelike fashion; the baritones, 
contraltos, and sopranos expressing their feelings in prolonged notes. 
There seems also to be some kind of competition between the siamangs and 
the onkas, for no sooner does a music party of the larger species assemble, 
than a miserable spider-legged onka plants itself in an adjacent tree and 
gives full play to its powerful lungs. The cry of the onka beats that of the 
jackal and laughing hyena clean out of the field, and at times nearly drives 
one to distraction. It is exactly like that of a suffering child, only four times 
as strong.”’ 
Among the most distinctive gibbons are the hoolock, of the 
Himalayan foothills, which is brown or black relieved by a 
white band across the forehead; the lar, or reddish-faced, white- 
handed gibbon of the Malay Peninsula; the wau-wau of Java, 
Borneo, and the Sulu Islands, which is ashy gray, with whitish 
eyebrows and black cap, fingers, and toes; and the Sumatran 
onka, or agile gibbon. All these are much alike and frequent 
mountain forests up to about four thousand feet. They are 
remarkably adept at climbing and leaping — will, for example, 
rush end over end down hill slopes “by grasping bamboos or 
branches that bend beneath their weight, and allow them to 
drop until they can seize the ends of other bamboos and branches 
lower on the slope, and take another mighty swing downward 
“almost like a flock of loirds.” 
However, when they do occasionally come to the ground, 
they show themselves able to walk erect and more human- 
hke than any other ape, setting the foot down flat upon the sole, 
holding the long arms gracefully above the head, and so taking 
a rapid and funny gait, which would recommend them to Del- 
sarte or an American cake-walk expert. Forbes had a tame 
siamang that used to accompany him every evening about the 
village plaza, leaning elegantly on his arm, to the admiration 
of all the people; and a French writer describes how one would 
walk down the length of a table without disturbing a dish. 
22 
