CHAPTER III.THE MAN-SHAPED APES (continued)—GenusSimia—THE ORANG-UTAN.
Origin of the Name—Description of the Orang—Rajah Brooke’s First Specimen—Mr. Wallace’s Experiences in Mias Hunting—The Home of the Mias—A Mias at Bay—Their Nests, Habits, Food, and Localities—Different kinds of Orangs—Structural Points—The Intelligence and Habits of the Young—The Brain and its Case—Resemblances and Differences of Old and Young
Origin of the Name—Description of the Orang—Rajah Brooke’s First Specimen—Mr. Wallace’s Experiences in Mias Hunting—The Home of the Mias—A Mias at Bay—Their Nests, Habits, Food, and Localities—Different kinds of Orangs—Structural Points—The Intelligence and Habits of the Young—The Brain and its Case—Resemblances and Differences of Old and Young
THEMalays call their chiefs Orangs, and the word relates to the intelligence of those called by it, meaning “a rational being.” They apply it also to their Elephants, and to the great Ape of Sumatra and Borneo. Utan, or as some spell it, Oetan (utang being wrong), means wild, or “of the woods;” and hence the conjoined words may be translated by what the natives really mean, “the wild man of the wood.” There are two kinds of Orang-utan, and both are, to a certain extent, man-like, the resemblance being greatest in the females and in the young, and diminishing as the males grow older.
All have long ruddy-brown hair, the tinge being decidedly red, a dark face, with small eyes, small nose, and great projecting jaws. The hair comes over the forehead and backwards over the neck; it is long on the limbs, and points downwards on the upper and upwards on the lower arm. It covers the back, and seat, and legs, standing out often, and gives a very wiry look to the fur. What strikes one directly on looking at a well-stuffed specimen of an old male, for instance, is the great length of the fore-limbs, which reach far towards the ankle, the length of the muzzle, and the extraordinary breadth of the face under the eyes, where the flatness resembles a mask more than a natural growth. In the females and young this growth of the cheek-bone and its covering of fat and skin are not seen; and it appears to be a mark of male beauty, as are also two sets of ridges on the skull, which greatly resemble those of the Gorilla.
Rajah Brooke, whose name will always be associated with Borneo, took great interest in Orang-utan hunting, principally with a view to decide how many kinds there were; and his first impressions on killing his first large one were excited by the prominent peculiarities just noticed. The first male he killed was seated lazily on a tree, and when the people approached he only took the trouble to hide behind the trunk, peeping first on one side and then on the other, and “dodging,” as the Rajah did the same. He was wounded in the wrist, and afterwards was despatched. The Rajah wrote to the Zoological Society of London as follows:—“Great was our triumph as we gazed on the huge animal dead at our feet, and proud were we of having shot the first Orang we had seen, and shot him in his native woods, in a Borneo forest hitherto untrodden by European feet. We were struck with the length of his arms, the enormous neck, the expanse of face, which altogether gave the impression of great height, whereas it was only great power. The hair was long, reddish, and thin; the face remarkably broad and fleshy, and on each side, in the place of a man’s whiskers, were the callosities, or rather fleshy protuberances, which I was so desirous to see, and which were nearly two inches in thickness. The ears were small and well shaped, the nose quite flat, the mouth prominent, the lips thick, the eyes small and roundish, the teeth large and discoloured, the face and hands black—these last being very powerful. This animal was four feet one inch in height, and its fore limb was three feet five inches and three-quarters in length; the width of the face, moreover, being as much as one foot one inch.”
“Whilst the fore limb was so long, the lower limb, from the hip to the heel, only measured one foot nine inches; and hence there is great disproportion between the limbs, the legs and feet appearing dwarfed in comparison.”
The Rajah considered the Orangs to be as dull and slothful as one could conceive, and on nooccasion, when pursuing them, did they move so fast as to preclude his keeping pace with them easily through a moderately clear forest, and even when obstructions below (such as wading up to the neck) enabled them to get away some distance, they were sure to stop and allow the hunters to come up. He never observed any attempt at defiance; and the wood which sometimes rattled about his ears was broken by their weight, and not thrown down, as some people imagine to be the case.
If pushed to extremity, the large male with crests on its head (which is called “Pappan”), could be formidable; and one unfortunate man, who, with a party, was trying to catch a large one alive, lost two of his fingers, besides being severely bitten in the face, whilst the animal finally beat off its pursuers. When the natives wish to catch an adult, they cut down a circle of trees round the one on which he is seated, and then fell that also, and close before he can recover himself, and try to bind him. The Rajah also notices the little dread the natives have of them, and that they form seats rather than nests in the trees.
These observations regarding their habits have been slightly opposed by Mr. Wallace, whose descriptions of Orang—or, as he prefers to call it, from the Dyak language, Mias—hunting and of their habits are undoubtedly the most reliable.
Wallace spent a long time in the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra; and one of his principal objects in visiting the first especially was to obtain an insight as to the nature and life of the great man-like Apes of the country. After some time spent in hunting, he succeeded in shooting a full-grown male Orang-utan, and he describes the scene as follows:—
ORANG-UTANS.❏LARGER IMAGE
ORANG-UTANS.
❏LARGER IMAGE
“I had just come home from an entomologising excursion, when Charles rushed in, out of breath with running and excitement, and exclaimed, interrupted by gasps, ‘Get the gun, sir—be quick—such a large Mias!’ ‘Where is it?’ I asked, taking hold of my gun as I spoke, which happened luckily to have one barrel loaded with ball. ‘Close by, sir—on the path to the mines; he can’t get away.’ Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the time, so I called them to accompany me, and started off, telling Charley to bring all the ammunition after me as soon as possible. The path from our clearing to the mines led along the side of the hill, a little way up its slope, and parallel with it at the foot a wide opening had been made for a road, in which several Chinamen were working, so that the animal could not escape into the swampy forest below without descending to cross the road, or ascending to get round the clearing. We walked cautiously along, not making the least noise, and listening attentively for any sound which might betray the presence of the Mias, stopping at intervals to gaze upwards. Charley soon joined us at the place where he had seen the creature, and having taken the ammunition, and put a bullet in the other barrel, we dispersed a little, feeling sure that it must be somewhere near, as it had probably descended the hill, and would not be likely to return again. After a short time I heard a very slight rustling sound overhead, but on gazing up could see nothing. I moved about in every direction, to get a full view into every part of the tree under which I had been standing, when I again heard the same noise, but louder, and saw the leaves shaking, as if caused by the motion of some heavy animal, which moved off to an adjoining tree. I immediately shouted for all of them to come up and try and get a view, so as to allow me to have a shot. This was not an easy matter, as the Mias had a knack of selecting places with dense foliage beneath. Very soon, however, one of the Dyaks called me and pointed upwards, and on looking I saw a great red hairy body and a huge black face gazing down from a great height, as if wanting to know what was making such a disturbance below. I instantly fired, and he made off at once, so that I could not then tell whether I had hit him. He now moved very rapidly and very noiselessly for so large an animal, so I told the Dyaks to follow and keep him in sight while I loaded. The jungle was here full of large angular fragments of rock from the mountain above, and thick with hanging and twisting creepers. Running, climbing, and creeping among these, we came up with the creature on the top of a high tree near the road, where the Chinamen had discovered him, and were shouting their astonishment with open mouth: ‘Ya, ya, Tuan! Orang-utan, Tuan!’ Seeing that he could not pass here without descending, he turned up again towards the hill, and I got two shots, and following quickly had two more by the time he had again reached the path; but he was almost more or less concealed by foliage, and protected by the large branch on which he was walking. Once while loading I had a splendid view of him, moving along a large limb of a tree in a semi-erect posture, and showing him to be an animal of the largest size. At the path he got on to one of the loftiest trees in the forest, and we could see one leg hanging down useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixed himself in a fork, where he was hidden by thick foliage, and seemed disinclined to move. I was afraid he would remain and die in this position, and as it was nearly evening I could not have got the tree cut down that day. I therefore fired again, and he then moved off, and going up the hill was obliged to get on to some lower trees, on the branches of one of which he fixed himself in such a position that he could not fall, and lay all in a heap, as if dead or dying. I now wanted the Dyaks to go up and cut off the branch he was resting on, but they were afraid, saying he was not dead, and would come and attack them. We then shook the adjoining tree, pulled the hanging creepers, and did all we could to disturb him, but without effect; so I thought it best to send for two Chinamen with axes to cut down the tree. While the messenger was gone, however, one of the Dyaks took courage and climbed towards him, but the Mias did not wait for him to get near, moving off to another tree, where he got on to a dense mass of branches and creepers, which almost completely hid him from our view. The tree was luckily a small one, so when the axes came we soon had it cut through; but it was so held up by jungle ropes and climbers to adjoining trees that it only fell into a sloping position. The Mias did not move, and I began to fear that, after all, we should not get him, as it was near evening, and half-a-dozen more trees would have to be cut down before the one he was on would fall. As a last resource we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook the tree very much; and, after a few minutes, when we had almost given up all hopes, down he came with a crash and a thud like the fall of a giant. And he was a giant, his head and body being full as large as a man’s. He was of the kind called by the Dyaks ‘Mias Chapyian,’ or ‘Mias Pappan,’ which has the skin of the face broadened out to a ridge or fold at each side. His outstretched arms measured seven feet three inches across, and his height, measuring fairly from the top of the head to the heel, was four feet two inches. The body just below the arms was three feet two inches round, and was quite as long as a man’s, the legs being exceedingly short in proportion. On examination we found he had been dreadfully wounded. Both legs were broken, one hip-joint and the root of the spine completely shattered, and two bullets were found flattened in his neck and jaws; yet he was still alive when he fell. The two Chinamen carried him home tied to a pole; and I was occupied with Charley the whole of the next day, preparing the skin and boiling the bones, to make a perfect skeleton, which are now preserved in the museum at Derby.”
FRONT AND SIDE FACE OF THE ORANG.
FRONT AND SIDE FACE OF THE ORANG.
The following description from the same author gives an excellent idea of the nature of the country inhabited by another Orang, and of its Monkey companions:—
“After a few miles, the stream became very narrow and winding, and the whole country on each side was flooded. On the banks were abundance of Monkeys—the commonMacacus cynomolgus, a blackSemnopithecus, and the extraordinary Long-nosed Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), which is as large as a three-year-old child, has a very long tail, and a fleshy nose, longer than that of the biggest-nosed man. The further we went on the narrower and more winding the stream became; fallen trees sometimes blocked up our passage, and sometimes tangled branches and creepers met completely across it, and had to be cut away before we could get on. It took us two days to reach Semábanga, and we hardly saw a bit of dry land all the way. In the latter part of the journey I could touch the bushes on each side for miles; and we were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pandanus) which grew abundantly in the water, falling across the stream. In other places dense rafts of floating grass completely filled up the channel, making our journey a constant succession of difficulties. The mountain or hill was close by, covered with a complete forest of fruit-trees, among which the Durion and Mangosteen were very abundant; but the fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a little here and there. I spent a week at this place, going out every day in various directions about the mountain, accompanied by a Malay, who had stayed with me while the other boatmen returned. For three days we found no Orangs, but shot a Deer and several Monkeys. On the fourth day, however, we found a Mias feeding on a very lofty Durion tree, and succeeded in killing it, after eight shots. Unfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging by its hands, and we were obliged to leave it and return home, as it was several miles off. As I felt pretty sure it would fall during the night, I returned to the place early the next morning, and found it on the ground beneath the tree. To my astonishment and pleasure, it appeared to be a different kind from any I had yet seen; for although a full-grown male, by its fully-developed teeth and very large canines, it had no sign of the lateral protuberance on the face, and was about one-tenth smaller than the other adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to be broader than in the larger species, a character distinguishing theSimia morioof Professor Owen, which he has described from the skull of a female specimen. As it was too far to carry the animal home, I set to work and skinned the body on the spot, leaving the head, hands, and feet attached, to be finished at home. This specimen is now in the British Museum.”
The Mias, as stated by Rajah Brooke, will turn upon an antagonist when hard pressed, and with no small bravery and ferocity; and this was satisfactorily proved by Mr. Wallace, who tells the following story:—
“About ten days after this, on June 4th, some Dyaks came to tell me that the day before a Mias had nearly killed one of their companions. A few miles down the river there is a Dyak house, and the inhabitants saw a large Orang feeding on the young shoots of a palm by the river side. On being alarmed he retreated towards the jungle, which was close by, and a number of the men, armed with spears and choppers, ran out to intercept him. The man who was in front tried to run his spear through the animal’s body, but the Mias seized it in his hands, and in an instant got hold of the man’s arm, which he seized in his mouth, making his teeth meet in the flesh above the elbow, which he tore and lacerated in a dreadful manner. Had not the others been close behind, the man would have been more seriously injured, if not killed, as he was quite powerless; but they soon destroyed the creature with their spears and choppers. The man remained ill for a long time, and never fully recovered the use of his arm. They told me the dead Mias was still lying where it had been killed, so I offered them a reward to bring it up to our landing-place immediately, which they promised to do. They did not come, however, till the next day, and then decomposition had commenced, and great patches of the hair came off, so that it was useless to skin it. This I regretted much, as it was a very fine, full-grown male. I cut off the head and took it home to clean, while I got my men to make a close fence, about five feet high, round the rest of the body, which would soon be devoured by maggots, small lizards, and ants, leaving me the skeleton.”
On another occasion Mr. Wallace had an opportunity of observing the nest, or rather nest-making, which is performed by these animals when severely wounded.“He was called by a Chinaman working in Borneo to shoot a Mias which, he said, was on a tree close by his house at the coal-mines. Arriving at the place, we had some difficulty in finding the animal, as he had gone off into the jungle, which was very rocky and difficult to traverse. At last we found him up a very high tree, and could see that he was a male of the largest size. As soon as I had fired, he moved higher up the tree, and while he was doing so I fired again; and we then saw that one arm was broken. He had now reached the very highest part of an immense tree, and immediately began breaking off boughs all around, and laying them across and across to make a nest. It was very interesting to see how well he had chosen his place, and how rapidly he stretched out his unwounded arm in every direction, breaking off good-sized boughs with the greatest ease, and laying them back across each other, so that in a few minutes he had formed a compact mass of foliage, which entirely concealed him from our sight. He was evidently going to pass the night here, and would probably get away early the next morning, if not wounded too severely. I therefore fired again several times, in hopes of making him leave his nest; but, though I felt sure I had hit him, as at each shot he moved a little, he would not go away. At length he raised himself up, so that half his body was visible, and then gradually sank down, his head alone remaining on the edge of the nest. I now felt sure he was dead, and tried to persuade the Chinaman and his companion to cut down the tree; but it was a very large one, and they had been at work all day, and nothing would induce them to attempt it. The next morning, at daybreak, I came to the place, and found that the Mias was evidently dead, as his head was visible in exactly the same position as before.”
There is every reason to believe that the Mias, or Orang-utan, is confined to the two great islands of Sumatra and Borneo, in the former of which, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo it has a wide range, inhabiting many districts on the south-west, south-east, north-east, and north-west coasts, but appears to be chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems, at first sight, very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite unknown in the Saráwak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on the west, and Sádong, on the east; but when we know the habits and mode of life of the animal, we see a sufficient reason for this apparent anomaly in the physical features of the Saráwak district. Where Mr. Wallace observed the Mias it was where the country is low, level, and swampy, and at the same time covered with a lofty virgin forest. Many isolated mountains, on some of which the Dyaks have settled, are close by, and are covered with plantations of fruit-trees. These are a great attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the fruits, but always retires to the swamp at night. When the country becomes slightly elevated, and the soil dry, the Mias is no longer to be found. For example, in all the lower parts of the Sádong valley it abounds, but as soon as we ascend above the limits of the tides, where the country, though still flat, is high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now, the Saráwak valley has this peculiarity: the lower portion, though swampy, is not covered with continuous lofty forests, but is principally occupied by the Nipa palm; and near the town of Saráwak, where the country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and covered with small patches of virgin forest and much second-growth jungle, on ground which has once been cultivated by the Malays or Dyaks. “Now it seems to me,” writes the same author, “that a wide extent of unbroken and equally lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable existence of these animals. Such forests form their open country, where they can roam in every direction, with as much facility as the Indian on the prairie or the Arab on the desert; passing from tree-top to tree-top without ever being obliged to descend upon the earth. The elevated and the drier districts are more frequented by man, and are more cut up by clearings and low second-growth jungle. They are not adapted to its peculiar mode of progression, and they would be more exposed to danger, and more frequently obliged to descend upon the earth in such places. There is probably also a greater variety of fruit in the Mias district, the small mountains which rise like islands out of it serving as a sort of gardens or plantations. It is a singular and very interesting sight to watch a Mias making his way leisurely through the forest. He walks deliberately along some of the larger branches in the semi-erect attitude, which the great length of his arms and the shortness of his legs cause him naturally to assume; and the disproportion between these limbs is increased by his walking on his knuckles, not on the palm of the hand, as we should do. He seems always to choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, on approaching which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself across to the next branch on which he walks along as before. He never jumps or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet manages to get along almost as quickly as a person can run through the forest beneath. The long and powerful arms are of the greatest use to the animal, enabling it to climb easily up the loftiest trees, to seize fruits and young leaves from slender boughs which will not bear its weight, and to gather leaves and branches with which to form its nest.”
ORANG AT BAY.
ORANG AT BAY.
FAMILY OF ORANG-UTANS.
FAMILY OF ORANG-UTANS.
Mr. Wallace, who described how it forms a nest when wounded, states “that it uses a similar one to sleep in almost every night. This is placed low down, however, on a small tree, not more than from twenty to fifty feet from the ground, probably because it is warmer and less exposed to wind than higher up. Each Mias is said to make a fresh one for himself every night; but I should think that is hardly probable, or their remains would be much more abundant; for though I saw several about the coal-mines, there must have been many Orangs about every day, and in a year their deserted nests would become very numerous. The Dyaks say that when it is very wet the Mias covers himself over with leaves of Pandanus, or large ferns, which has, perhaps, led to the story of his making a hut in the trees. The Orang does not leave his bed till the sun has well risen and has dried up the dew upon the leaves. He feeds all through the middle of the day, but seldom returns to the same tree two days running. They do not seem much alarmed at man, as they often stared down upon me for several minutes, and they only moved away slowly to an adjacent tree. After seeing one, I have often had to go half a mile or more to fetch my gun, and in nearly every case have found it on the same tree, or within a hundred yards, when I returned. I never saw two full-grown animals together, but both males and females are sometimes accompanied by half-grown young ones, while, at other times, three or four young ones were seen in company. Their food consists almost exclusively of fruit, with occasional leaves, buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer unripe fruits, some of which were very sour, others intensely bitter, particularly the large red fleshy arillus, or rind of one, which seemed an especial favourite. In other cases they eat only the small seed of a large fruit, and they almost always waste and destroy more than they eat, so that there is a continual rain of rejected portions below the tree they are feeding on. The Durion is an especial favourite, and quantities of this delicious fruit are destroyed wherever it grows surrounded by forest, but they will not cross clearings to get at them. It seems wonderful how the animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering of which is sothick and tough, and closely covered with strong conical spines. It probably bites off a few of these first, and then, making a small hole, tears open the fruit with its powerful fingers. The Mias rarely descends to the ground, except when, pressed by hunger, it seeks for succulent shoots by the river side; or, in very dry weather, has to search after water, of which it generally finds sufficient in the hollows of leaves. Once only I saw two half-grown Orangs on the ground, in a dry hollow at the foot of the Simunjou Hill. They were playing together, standing erect, and grasping each other by the arms. It may be safely stated, however, that the Orang never walks erect, unless when using its hands to support itself by branches overhead, or when attacked. Representations of its walking with a stick are entirely imaginary. The Dyaks all declare that the Mias is never attacked by any animal in the forest, with two rare exceptions; and the accounts I received of these are so curious, that I give them nearly in the words of my informants, old Dyak chiefs, who had lived all their lives in the places where the animal is most abundant. The first of whom I inquired said:—‘No animal is strong enough to hurt the Mias, and the only creature he ever fights with is the Crocodile. When there is no fruit in the jungle, he goes to seek food on the banks of the river, where there are plenty of young shoots that he likes, and fruits that grow close to the water. Then the Crocodile sometimes tries to seize him, but the Mias gets upon him, and beats him with his hands and feet, and tears him, and kills him.’ He added that he had once seen such a fight, and that he believes that the Mias is always the victor. My next informant was the Orang Kaya, or chief of the Balow Dyaks, on the Simunjou River. He said: ‘The Mias has no enemies; no animals dare attack it but the Crocodile and the Python. He always kills the Crocodile by main strength, standing upon it, pulling open its jaws, and ripping up its throat. If a Python attacks a Mias, he seizes it with his hands, and then bites it, and soon kills it. The Mias is very strong; there is no animal in the jungle so strong as he.’”
It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, and of such a high type of form as the Orang-utan, should be confined to so limited a district—to two islands, and those almost the last inhabited by the higher Mammalia; but in the Mid-Tertiary Period, and just before the formation of the Himalayan Mountains, Orangs lived on the continent of India, and their remains have been found fossilised. With what interest must every naturalist look forward to the time when the caves and Tertiary deposits of the tropics may be thoroughly examined, and the past history and earliest appearance of the great man-like Apes be at length made known!
The Orang-utans appear, from what has been written by all competent observers, to be of two kinds, the one larger, and the other smaller in stature; the first is calledSimia satyrus, and the otherSimia morio. Simia is translated in old Latin dictionaries as an Ape, or Jackanapes, and the term was used to designate the tribe or genus which should include all the species or kinds of man-shaped Apes. But after a while there was thought to be sufficient reasons for separating the Troglodytes from the genus Simia, and therefore this last-named one, instead of comprising the Gorilla, the Nschiego, the Koolo, the Soko, and the Chimpanzee, has but the Orang-utan.
Why this separation should have taken place is of course a very natural question, and the answer is that there are sufficient differences in the construction of the Orangs and the Chimpanzees and the others to warrant it. There is a greater structural difference between the Orang and the Chimpanzee than between this last and any of its congeners, that is to say, species included in the genus Troglodytes.
Moreover, on examining several skulls and skeletons of all these kinds, it seems as if, whilst the African Troglodytes may have descended from a common ancestor, probably a Baboon, the Orang-utan could not have come from the same stock.
There are some important distinctions in the anatomy of the Orang, some of which are evidently produced by adaptation to a particular habit or mode of life, and others in which the results of cause and effect cannot be traced.
In making its way through the forest, and in climbing so constantly that any position on the ground is rare, the great length of the fore limbs is of immense use to them. They nearly touch the ground, so long are they, when the creature is erect, and this peculiarity separates them from the Chimpanzees. In climbing, the blade-bone is of great importance; and in the Orang it is broader, and more like that of man than in the Chimpanzee and Gorilla, and its spine is inclined upwards; and one of the processes of the blade-bone which has to do with the muscles which pass from the shoulder to the arm, andwhich is called the coracoid, is more inclined downwards than in the Apes already described. Now, the blade-bone of the Chimpanzee and its coracoid are admirably adapted for climbing; why are they not, therefore, exactly like those of the Orang, andvice versâ? This is not a difference produced by adaptation of means to ends, but one which relates to the origin of the two animals, and to those which preceded them. The same is the case in respect of the wrist of the Orang. It has one bone more than the Chimpanzee, which has the same number as in other Troglodytes, and in man also. This bone is fixed in between the two rows of the bones of the wrist, and is called the “intermediate,” and is found in the Monkeys which are below the Orang in the animal scale. It is an offshoot of the scaphoid bone.
Oddly enough, although the number of the ribs of the Troglodytes is thirteen, and probably in one of them there are fourteen, there are only twelve in the Orang; and the breast-bone, which consists of a large upper bone and several smaller ones (united above and below to each other, in the Troglodytes), has these bones separate and halved, as it were, sideways in the Orang, resembling in it the condition of the bones of the immature man. In the Troglodytes the round top of the thigh-bone, where it fits into its socket, the hip, has a kind of rope-like ligament attaching the one bone to the other, but this does not exist in the Orang. The knee-cap is very small, and the heel-bone hardly projects backwards in the Orang, and the “toe-thumb” sticks out at right angles from the foot, being about one-quarter of its length. The Orang is a great climber, and rarely, if ever, walks on its sole, which the Chimpanzee can do slightly. The general appearance and the nature of the movements of the foot of the Orang is that of a thin “club foot.” All the turning-in of the bones of the foot in the Chimpanzee is exaggerated in the Orang, whose toe-thumbs are capable of great activity. Tame Orangs may be noticed to use the foot, which is longer than the lower leg, in climbing, as perfectly as the hand; and it appears that the frequency of their movements of grasping, rather than of delicate prehension, tends to the last joint of the “toe-thumb” becoming small and losing its nail.
A huge air-pouch is packed away in front of the windpipe and amongst the muscles of the neck, as in the Apes already noticed, and it commences in the so-called ventricles of the larynx. Its extension amongst the upper muscles of the chest is most remarkable, for when full of air, these being relaxed, it must blow out the upper part of the body and neck in a singular manner.
One of the muscles of the chest, common to man and Apes, the great pectoral (pectoralis major)—which has already been noticed as springing from the ribs, the breast and collar-bone, and to be attached in front of the groove in the upper arm-bone—is not a continuous sheet of muscular fibre as in man, but is divided into a number of bundles, there being at least three great ones. Now, it is between these and in their intervals that the vast laryngeal air-pouch is found on the chest. Great as it is, however, it does not appear to have anything to do with the voice, except, perhaps, to produce resonance during distension.
The muscles of the hips, thigh, and leg-bones of the Orang cannot be distinguished generally from those of the Chimpanzee; but it is evident that the position of some is such as to make straightening of the knee very difficult, and on the contrary, they assist jumping and climbing, or any movement in which it can be kept permanently bent. As it is most convenient for the foot of the Orang to be well expanded during climbing or holding on, and not for its bones to be too much forced together sideways, the animal is deficient in a muscle which exists in man,[15]and which stretches transversely across, between the ends of the metatarsal bones. In like manner the inability of the thumb to perform many separate actions is produced by the absence of the flexor muscle; but there is a slip of a muscle whose tendon reaches the first joint, and its office is to oppose the thumb, not to the palm of the hand, but to the first joint of the second finger. This is a monkeyish peculiarity.
The animal, using as it does its short toe-thumb for grasping forcibly, requires all the power possible to be exercised between its bones and those of the ankle. Hence it has a muscle which exists in the hand but not in the foot of man, and which, from its drawing the bones together, is called theopponens(of the great toe). This does not appear to exist in the Troglodytes.
The other most important peculiarities of the muscles which relate to the greater but less independent movement of the toes and fingers, are the connection of the long flexor of the “toe-thumb” with the lower and outer part of the thigh-bone, and the possession of a complete set of deep extensormuscles for the four outer fingers. The extensor of the first, and the corresponding muscle of the little finger, subdivide to supply the third and fourth. This is the case in the next group of Apes also, but in the Troglodytes each of these muscles has but a single tendon.[16]
ORANG AND NEST.
ORANG AND NEST.
Before considering the anatomy of the brain, skull, and the inside of the Orang, it is as well to become aware of some of its peculiarities when young, and in a state of captivity.
YOUNG ORANG.(From Wallace, by permission of the Publishers.)
YOUNG ORANG.(From Wallace, by permission of the Publishers.)
Several young Orang-utans have been brought to Europe and exhibited, to the delight of every one who saw them, but Mr. Wallace was fortunate enough to obtain one in its native haunts, and to observe it in its own climate. After shooting a female Mias, he found a little tiny one, lying face downwards, in the swamp where they were. “It was only about a foot long,” writes Mr. Wallace, “and had evidently been hanging to its mother when she first fell. Luckily, it did not appear to have been wounded, and after we had cleaned the mud out of its mouth it began to cry out, and seemed quite strong and active. While carrying it home it got its hands in my beard, and grasped so tightly, that I had great difficulty in getting free, for the fingers are habitually bent inwards at the last joint, so as to form complete hooks. At this time it had not a single tooth, but a few days afterwards it cut its two lower front teeth. Unfortunately, I had no milk to give it, as neither Malays, Chinese, nor Dyaks ever use the article, and I in vain inquired for any female animal that could suckle my little infant. I was therefore obliged to give it rice-water from a bottle, with a quill in the cork, which after a few trials it learned to suck very well. This was very meagre diet, and the little creature did not thrive well on it, although I added sugar and cocoa-nut milk occasionally, to make it more nourishing. When I put my finger in its mouth it sucked with great vigour, drawing in its cheeks with all its might in the vain effort to extract some milk, and only after persevering a long time would it give up in disgust, and set up a scream very like that of a baby in similar circumstances. When handled or nursed, it was very quiet and contented, but when laid down by itself would invariably cry; and for the first few nights was very restless and noisy. I fitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to lie upon, which was changed and washed every day; and I soon found it necessary to wash the little Mias as well. After I had done so a few times, it came to like the operation, and as soon as it was dirty would begin crying, and not leave off till I took it out and carried it to the spout, when it immediately became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush of the cold water, and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running over its head. It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when I brushed its hair seemed to be perfectly happy, lying quite still, with its arms and legs stretched out, while I thoroughly brushed the long hair of its back and arms. For the first few days it clung desperately with all four hands to whatever it could lay hold of, and I had to be careful to keep my beard out of its way, as its fingers clutched hold of hair more tenaciously than anything else, and it was impossible to free myself without assistance. When restless, it would struggle about, with its hands up in the air, trying to find something to take hold of, and, when it had got a bit of stick or rag in two or three of its hands, seemed quite happy. For want of something else, it would often seize its own feet, and after a time it would constantly cross its arms, and grasp with each hand the long hair that grew just below the opposite shoulder. The great tenacity of its grasp soon diminished, and I was obliged to invent some means to give it exercise and strengthen its limbs. For this purpose I made a short ladder of three or four rounds, on which I put it to hang for a quarter of an hour at a time. At first it seemed much pleased, but it could not get all four hands in a comfortable position, and, after changing about several times, would leave hold of one hand after the other, and drop on the floor. Sometimes when hanging only by two hands, it would loose one, and cross it to the opposite shoulder, grasping its own hair; and, as this seemed much more agreeable than the stick, it would then loose the other and tumble down, when it would cross both, and lie on its back quite contentedly, never seeming to be hurt by its numeroustumbles. Finding it so fond of hair, I endeavoured to make an artificial mother, by wrapping up a piece of buffalo-skin into a bundle, and suspending it about a foot from the floor. At first this seemed to suit it admirably, as it could sprawl its legs about and always find some hair, which it grasped with the greatest tenacity. I was now in hopes that I had made the little orphan quite happy; and so it seemed for some time, till it began to remember its lost parent, and try to suck. It would pull itself up close to the skin, and try about everywhere for a likely place; but, as it only succeeded in getting mouthfuls of hair and wool, it would be greatly disgusted, and scream violently, and after two or three attempts, let go altogether. One day it got some wool into its throat, and I thought it would have choked, but after much gasping it recovered, and I was obliged to take the imitation mother to pieces again, and give up this last attempt to exercise the little creature. After the first week I found I could feed it better with a spoon, and give it a little more varied and more solid food. Well-soaked biscuit, mixed with a little egg and sugar, and sometimes sweet potatoes, were readily eaten; and it was a never-failing amusement to observe the curious changes of countenance by which it would express its approval or dislike of what was given to it. The poor little thing would lick its lips, draw in its cheeks, and turn up its eyes with an expression of the most supreme satisfaction when it had a mouthful particularly to its taste. On the other hand, when its food was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with its tongue for a moment, as if trying to extract what flavour there was, and then push it all out between its lips. If the same food was continued, it would set up a scream, and kick about violently, exactly like a baby in a passion. After I had had the little Mias about three weeks, I fortunately obtained a young Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which, though small, was very active, and could feed itself. I placed it in the same box with the Mias, and they immediately became excellent friends, neither exhibiting the least fear of the other. The little Monkey would sit upon the other’s stomach, or even on its face, without the least regard to its feelings. While I was feeding the Mias, the Monkey would sit by, picking up all that was spilt, and occasionally putting out its hands to intercept the spoon, and as soon as I had finished would pick off what was left sticking to the Mias’ lips, and then pull open its mouth to see if any still remained inside, afterwards lying down on the poor creature’s stomach as on a comfortable cushion. The little helpless Mias would submit to all these insults with the most exemplary patience, only too glad to have something warm near it which it could clasp affectionately in its arms. It sometimes, however, had its revenge; for when the Monkey wanted to go away, the Mias would hold on as long as it could by the loose skin of its back or head, or by its tail, and it was only after many vigorous jumps that the Monkey could make its escape. It was curious to observe the different actions of these two animals, which could not have differed much in age. The Mias, like a very young baby, lying on its back, quite helpless, rolling lazily from side to side, stretching out all four hands into the air, wishing to grasp something, but hardly able to guide its fingers to any definite object, and when dissatisfied opening wide its almost toothless mouth, and expressing its wants by a most infantine scream; the little Monkey, on the other hand, in constant motion, running and jumping about wherever it pleased, examining everything around it, seizing hold of the smallest objects with the greatest precision, balancing itself on the edge of the box, or running up a post, and helping itself to anything eatable that came in its way. There could hardly be a greater contrast; and the baby Mias looked more baby-like by the comparison. When I had had it about a month, it began to exhibit some signs of learning to run alone. When laid upon the floor it would push itself along by its legs, or roll itself over, and thus make an unwieldy progression. When lying in the box it would lift itself up to the edge into almost an erect position, and once or twice succeeded in tumbling out. When left dirty, or hungry, or otherwise neglected, it would scream violently till attended to, varied by a kind of coughing or pumping noise, very similar to that which is made by the adult animal. If no one was in the house, or its cries were not attended to, it would be quiet after a little while, but the moment it heard a footstep would begin again harder than ever. After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth, but in all this time it had not grown the least bit, remaining, both in size and weight, the same as when I first procured it. This was, no doubt, owing to the want of milk or other equally nourishing food. Rice-water, rice, and biscuits were but a poor substitute, and the expressed milk of the cocoa-nut, which I sometimes gave it, did not quite agree with its stomach. To this I imputed an attack of diarrhœa, from which the poor little creature suffered greatly, but a small dose of castor-oil operated well, and curedit. A week or two afterwards it was again taken ill, and this time more seriously. The symptoms were exactly those of intermittent fever, accompanied by watery swellings on the feet and head. It lost all appetite for its food, and after lingering for a week, a most pitiable object, died, after being in my possession nearly three months. I much regretted the loss of my little pet, which I had at one time looked forward to bringing up to years of maturity, and taking home to England. For several months it had afforded me daily amusement by its curious ways and the inimitably ludicrous expression of its little countenance. Its weight was three pounds nine ounces, its height fourteen inches, and the spread of its arms twenty-three inches. I preserved its skin and skeleton, and in doing so found that, when it fell from the tree, it must have broken an arm and a leg, which had, however, united so rapidly, that I only noticed the hard swellings on the limbs where the irregular junction of the bones had taken place.”
There is evidently much intelligence in the young Orang, when brought in contact with man, but probably in its native woods it leads a very quiet and almost mechanical life, there being nothing to develop extra instincts, thought, or unusual intelligence. Of course, some are more active than others, and many have to use greater exertion than others to obtain food. Hence, whilst there is no increased growth of the mental organ after Orang childhood, there may be great increase of the muscular structures. In the first instance, the brain case does not enlarge internally, and the old ones have no more brains than the young; and in the second, the ridges on the skull, the spines of the neck, and the markings on the bones generally do grow immensely, so as to give attachment to extra-muscular fibres.