348 
Notes on the Mias. 
[June, 
which was destitute of thumb-nails, it was considered as 
belonging to another species. This is not so, but the thumb- 
nails become obliterated as the animal increases in age, 
owing to its continual travels through the forest, and the 
constant use they are put to in tearing open obdurate, be- 
cause unripe, fruit. I have seen many men in Borneo whose 
nails, in consequence of life and work in the forest, — such as 
searching for gutta, ratans, and edible nests, — have become 
almost obliterated. 
The pouch or drum under the chin is, I take it, not a 
drum, but really a pouch, or, as the sailors call a similar 
process in monkeys, a “ panam bag,” or receptacle for 
storage of food not required for immediate use. True I have 
never found food in this pouch, but, on the other hand, I 
have never heard the maias roar. While it happens that the 
maias has really no outward nose at all, only noses for nos- 
trils, the exquisite shape of the ear — which we justly consi- 
der unsightly and useless as regards ourselves — really attracts 
the attention as an object of beauty. The large males, al- 
though weighing twice as much as a full-grown man, have 
no larger genitals than a human child of tender age. 
The largest maias I have killed measured 8 feet io inches 
in the stretch, being 12 inches longer than Mr. Wallace’s 
largest. This monster was in the prime of life, having his 
teeth and nails unimpaired. The breadth of his face, in- 
cluding callosities, was 13 inches. I sent the skin and 
skeleton to Mr. Higgins, of Bloomsbury Street. 
The infant maias, when taken, at once accommodates 
itself to circumstances, showing no fear of its captor, but 
looking to him quite naturally as its protestor and feeder. 
If cold it will at once use a handkerchief, or even a piece of 
newspaper, as a cloak. 
In the “ Life of Apollonius ” we read that in the distant 
East there is a country where pepper was cultivated, and the 
farmer employed apes to cultivate the vines. Now pepper 
has been from the most ancient times cultivated in Sumatra 
and Borneo, and the maias is found in each of these coun- 
tries. The same work, however, makes mention of an 
exceedingly high mountain. Although we have Mount 
Ophir in Sumatra, it is not very remarkable, as it is appa- 
rently only the highest part of a long range. But in Borneo 
we have Kinabalu, much higher than Ophir, and, from the 
sea, apparently a detached mountain, and so more likely to 
gain notice as a high mountain. This Kinabalu is no doubt 
the mountain said to have been in the fortunate island to 
which the Chinese Emperors Che Hwang-Ze (which I take 
