270 
FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 
nothing could surpass the indolent ease with which he left us 
behind. 
This was my first interview with this peculiar animal; and the 
superstitious Dyak assured Thursday, relating numerous parallel 
cases, that as I had not killed the orang, the orang would certainly 
kill me. He said he had known a great many travelers who had 
been attacked by them and killed, and that I would soon join their 
number, although he confessed that he had never himself been 
present at such a misfortune. 
One morning, as I was returning from a long walk through 
the woods in search of insects, one of my boys came running toward 
me, shouting with excitement, ‘'Quick, take your gun! a large orang, 
a large orang!’’ 
MUST KILL OR BE KILLED* 
He had only breath enough left to tell me the animal was up 
the path toward the Chinaman’s camp, and I hurried in that direc¬ 
tion followed by two Dyaks. One barrel of my gun was loaded with 
ball, and I sent Charley—the boy—back to camp for more ammuni¬ 
tion, in case I should find the game had kindly waited for me. We 
walked carefully, making almost no noise, stopping every now and 
then to look round ourselves, until Charley rejoined us at the spot 
where he had seen the orang, and I put a ball in the other barrel 
and waited, sure that we were near the game. In a moment or two 
I heard a heavy body moving from tree to tree, but the foliage was 
so thick we could see nothing. 
Finally, fearing I might lose him entirely, I fired at random into 
a tree in which we thought he must be. For so large an animal he 
moved with remarkable swiftness and silence, but I felt sure, if we 
could follow his general course, we should eventually catch sight of 
him in some more open bit of forest. And so it proved. 
Just at the spot where he had first been seen by Charley, and 
to which we had now got back, his tawny side and black head 
appeared for an instant; I saw him cross the path, dragging one leg 
as if it had been broken. At any rate, he could not use it, and he 
took refuge between two branches of a lofty tulip-tree, sheltered 
