SEA TRAGEDY OF THE JUNGLE FOLK 129 
they described the location and told how it could be 
reached. A general discussion followed. I gave 
each man a chance to express his ideas. They all 
wanted to talk—preferably all at the same time— 
and the council dragged on for hours. With the 
assistance of Omar, I kept the debate orderly, and 
we listened to all sorts of opinions. 
For the most part, they felt that it would be 
necessary to kill the animals. That, of course, was 
the last thing in the world that I wanted. It would 
mean that the expedition was wasted effort: there 
are few live orang-outangs in zodlogical gardens, 
but many stuffed ones in museums. I did not agree 
with the idea that we should have to kill the animals 
but I did not entirely disagree. We compromised 
by reaching the decision that, if they must be killed, 
I should do the work and no man should try to kill 
them without my consent. The natives had seen 
what one bullet from my rifle would do to a tree, 
and they were convinced that an orang-outang 
would stand a poor chance. 
The council broke up and work began. I had 
Omar set some of his men to making strong nets 
of twisted rattan. He drew plans for the two cages 
and had other men gather the limbs of trees for 
them. The cages were just large enough to hold 
the animals and small enough to keep them from 
getting any leverage on the bars. After the skele- 
tons of the cages were built, they were bound tightly 
with rattan ropes so that, even if the bars were 
