A BABIRUSA COMMITS SUICIDE. 



331 



advance of us had taken little rice. The controleui^ 

 thereforey thought we must make a third attempt to 

 reach the northern end of the island, notwithstand- 

 ing K.'s earnest entreaties to he only taken back to 

 Kema once more. We had not reached the narrows, 

 however, before we met the hukom with all his men 

 and doga. They had found the surf so high that 

 the only way most of his men had been able to 

 reach their boats, was to mn dovm the steep rocks 

 and plunge head foremost into the combing waves. 

 We now landed a few natives to scour the woods, 

 and finally come to the southern end of the island, 

 while we went round in the boats. In order to make 

 their way thi'ough the dense forest, instead of putting 

 on more clothing as a protection against the sticks and 

 stones and thorny vines, they stripped off what little 

 they wore, except a nan'ow baud over the loins. At 

 the southern end of the island was a small, deep bay, 

 and here we encamped for the thii'd time. Soon the 

 natives came in, but they had secui'ed only two wild 

 hogs. I preserved the skull of one, a female, in 

 which the canine teeth were not as long as those of 

 a male. Tlie hukom declared that in the babinisa 

 only the males have the long cui'ved teeth, which the 

 Malays have fancied resemble the antlers of a deer. 

 While waiting for us, he had been hunting in the 

 vicinity of his carap, and had taken one female by 

 di'iving her to the end of a high point. As soon aa 

 she saw there was no chance for her to escape, she 

 leaped down the precipice and was killed by the 

 fall. Such suicide, he says, is frequently resorted to 

 by that animal when it finds it can retreat no farther. 



