OLD MAN OF THE SEA. 93 



" Central Africa the kinglet rides on a slave, and on cere- 

 " monious occasion mounts his Prime Minister." The weak- 

 ness of the connection of ideas is however apparent. The 

 custom of one man being carried by another does not convey 

 the impression of the unnatural, clinging, unshakeable, 

 creature with which Sindbad was saddled. For an ex- 

 planation of the expression " of the Sea " Burton had 

 recourse to the classics. " The classicists," he wrote " of 

 course, find the Shaykh of the Sea in the Tritons and 

 Nercus, and Bochart (Hiero ii 858, 880) notices the home 

 aquaticus, Senex Judaeus and Senex Marinus." 



But he has made no attempt to show any connection of 

 ideas between the Man-riding Man and the Water-Man. The 

 five arguments which Hole adduces in favour of the orang 

 utan theory may be briefly enumerated as follows : — 



1. The old man never speaks, but expresses his wishes 

 by signs. 



2. He apparently lives solely on fruit. 



3. Though his face is like that of a human being, the 

 hide of his legs is like that of an animal. 



4. The " pressing," the " squeezing " the " winding " of 

 the legs. — [Any one who has kept a pet orang utan, wah- 

 wah (Hylobates lar) or siamang (H. syndactylus) as a pet 

 knows the almost wild despair with which it clings to its 

 master, as if it would surfer itself to be torn to pieces rather 

 than be removed.] 



5. The well known partiality of apes and monkeys to 

 intoxicants, and the extreme quickness with which they be- 

 come intoxicated. 



A sixth point, which was probably unknown to Hole, but 

 to which considerable weight may be attached is that stories 

 similar to Sindbad's story are told to his day of the orang 

 utan by the Dyaks. Hugh Clifford's " Story of Chafing, the 

 Dyak " is very like the adventure of Sindbad. Chaling, it 

 will be remembered, was carried off by a iemale orang utan to 

 its platform on a forest tree, and for many days was unable to 

 effect his escape. 



E. A. Soc. No. 60, 1908. 



