20 



THE APES AND MONKEYS. 



ing as far as his ankle joint, and by his conically 

 shaped head and protruding jaws. He has only 

 twelve rib-supporting vertebrae. The skull of a 

 young Orang-utan resembles that of a human child 

 to a high degree ; but as it grows older, the bestial 

 nature is developed and this likeness almost entirely 

 disappears. 



Physical The largest male Orang-utan killed by 

 Character- Wallace was four feet two inches high, 

 istics. but he could spread his arms to the 

 width of six feet two mches. The face was thirteen 

 inches wide, and the circumference of the body was 

 four feet. The abdomen of the Orang-utan pro- 

 trudes and the hips are very wide ; the neck is short 

 and wrinkled in front, for the animal has a large 

 pouch at his throat, which can be inflated ; the nails 

 are frequently lacking on the thumbs of the feet. 

 The lips have a very unsightly appearance, for they 

 are not only wrinkled, but also greatly swollen ; the 

 nose is pressed flat ; the eyes and ears are small but 

 resemble those of a human being. The canines are 

 the most formidable among the teeth, and the lower 

 jaw is longer than the upper. The hair is scanty on 

 the back, and breast, but is long and plentiful on 

 the sides'of the body. In the face it grows beard- 

 like, and on the upper lip, on the chin, on the skull 

 and on the fore-arms its position is upwards. The 

 face and palms of the hands are bare, the breast and 

 fingers nearly so. The color is usually red, some- 

 times merging into brown, darker on the breast and 

 back and lighter in the beard. The bare parts look 

 bluish or slate-gray. Old males are distinguished 

 from females by their larger size, longer and thicker 

 hair, thicker beard and peculiar callosities on the 

 cheeks, spreading from the eyes to the ears and 

 upper jaw> and giving the face a hideous aspect. 

 The young Apes have no beard, but their hair is 

 darker and longer. 

 Early Accounts The Orang-utan has been known for 

 of the a very long time. Pliny avers that 



Orang. there were Satyrs on the East-Indian 



mountains, "very ferocious animals with human 

 faces, sometimes walking upright, sometimes on all 

 fours, and so agile that they could be captured only 

 in old age or when sick." His story goes on down 

 to our own times, receiving new additions every cen- 

 tury, until one nearly forgets that they are animals 

 concerning which the stories are told. They get to 

 be treated like wild Men. Exaggerations of all 

 kinds disfigure the truth. Bontius, a physician liv- 

 ing in the seventeenth century, speaks of his own 

 experience. He says he has seen "the dwellers of 

 the woods" several times, males as well as females. 

 They sometimes walked erect and behaved like hu- 

 man beings. One female in particular aroused his 

 wonder. She was ashamed when strangers looked 

 at her and covered her face with her hands ; she 

 would sigh and weep and do everything exactly like 

 a human being ; she only lacked speech. The Japa- 

 nese afifirm that Apes could talk very well if they 

 were so inclined, but they are dumb through fear of 

 being made to work. It is almost needless to state 

 that in all these stories the Orang-utans walk erect, 

 though it is sometimes added that they are also 

 " able " to go on all fours. In reality the narrators 

 of all these fables are innocent of deception, only 

 repeating what they heard from the natives. 



Wallace's Owing to the excellent observations of 



Account of Wallace, we know more about the life 



the Orang. jn a natural state of the Orang-utan than 



of any other of the Man-shaped Apes. This traveler 



had the best of opportunities to become acquamted 

 with the animal and to compare his experiences with 

 the tales of the natives. Some of his predecessors, 

 especially Owen, Kessel and Brooke had tried to 

 get at the truth, and his accounts in the main go to 

 prove their statements. , , ^ , . 



"We know," he says, "that the Orang-utan is a 

 native of Sumatra and Borneo, and, we have cause 

 to think, is limited to these two islands. But he 

 seems to be much more frequent in the latter than 

 in the former. He is found in extensive tracts of 

 land in the southwest and southeast, northwest and 

 northeast coasts, but occurs exclusively in marshy, 

 low-lying woods. In Sadong he is only found in 

 the plains covered with virgin forests and crossed 

 by many rivers. Isolated mountains, inhabited by 

 Dyaks and planted with' fruit trees, rise here, and 

 form a point of attraction for the Mias. They often 

 visit them on account of the fruits, but always retire 

 at night into their bogs. In all those parts of the 

 country where the surface riseS and is dry, the 

 Orang-utan does not appear. An extensive plain of 

 uninterrupted and level virgin forest seems a condi- 

 tion essential to the welfare of this Ape. These for- 

 ests offer to him a field for as unimpeded progress- 

 as a prairie to an Indian or the desert to an Arab. 

 He goes frorn tree-top to tree-top without ever alight- 

 ing on the ground. A high and dry country, with. 

 the trees cleared away in places and the ground cov- 

 ered by underbush, may be better adapted for Men, 

 but not for this Ape with its peculiar mode of loco- 

 motion. 



" It is an attractive and strange spectacle to see a 

 Mias (Orang-utan) easily making his way through 

 the forest. Without hurry he goes alpng one of the 

 lai'ger boughs, in a semi-erect position, which the 

 length of his arms and the shortness of his legs ren- 

 der obligatory; he does not use his soles, but walks 

 on his knuckles, like so hiany of his cousins. He 

 always seems to select trees whose branches inter- 

 weave ; he stretches out his long arms, seizes the 

 branches with both hands, seemingly trying their 

 strength, and then deliberately launches himself for- 

 ward upon the next tree, where he goes through the 

 same performance. He never hops or jumps, or 

 seems in the least to hurry, yet he proceeds on his- 

 way as quickly as anybody could run .underneath." 

 In another place Wallace says he thinks the Mia& 

 could easily cover a distance of five or six miles an 

 hour. "His long, powerful arms are of the greatest 

 use to him ; they enable him to climb the highest- 

 trees with ease, to pluck fruits and young leaves 

 of thin branches that would not hold his weight, 

 and to gather leaves and twigs for his nest." An 

 Orang-utan wounded by this explorer revealed to- 

 him the manner of building a nest. " As soon as I 

 had shot," says Wallace, " the Mias climbed to the 

 top of the tree. He started to break off branches- 

 and put them down crosswise. The place had been 

 admirably selected. With surprising quickness he 

 reached out in every direction with his unwounded 

 arm, breaking strong branches and crossing them, 

 so that in a few minutes he had formed a close 

 wall of foliage, which effectually concealed hiniL 

 from my sight. A similar nest is used by Orangs- 

 for their night's rest, but this is usually built on- 

 smaller trees farther down, as a rule not higher than 

 thirty to sixty feet ; probably because it is not here 

 so much exposed to the winds. It is said that the 

 Mias builds a new nest every night, but I think this^ 

 improbable, for, if such were the case, the remains- 



