The Portland daily press., 1884-10-31
Men Up a Tree.
A Remarkable Race OF Human Beings
Who Lodge AmSng the Branches.
philadelphia Times.)


Il am prepared to swallow the whole story
except the pouches in the mouth" said
gentleman, the other day, to whom Profess
sor George G.. Shelby, anthropologist and
member of the Geographical Society, was re-
counting the story of the capture of a hairy
family, clearly human, but bearing many
strong resemblances to the anthropold apes.
which ere secured by himself and the well
known explorer, Carl Book, aided by some
native soldiers, in the wilds of Laos, in the
year 1882.
''There are," said the professor, ''three
distinct races of men who live in trees. These
are Indians in South America, who inhabit
the borders of the OrInoco, Tucuya and Ma
dela rivers; the Veddas OF Ceylon and the
Krao Monieks of Laos, a dependency of ST.
am. Krao Moniek means mau monkey. La
os is part of the world which has never been
thoroughly explored and but comparatively
little is known about it by geographers and
scientists. 1t contains from 800 to 1000
square miles and lies between the fifteenth
and twentieth degrees of north latitude, north
of Siam, east of the Menam Khong. west of
AMMAN, and about 400 miles southwest of
Tonquin. The reason why Laos has not
been thoroughly explored is because almost
every one who has attempted it has died of
malarial fever. That part of the country in
which the Krao lives is very swampy, is in
habited only by the men who live in trees
and by elephants aud snakes. The people
live in trees TO escape the snakes and wet
ground. They weave the branches of two
trees together and build huts therein. In
climbing the trees they use their toes as
monkey does. They do not grasp the tree
with their legs as we do. They do not use
fire They live on dried fish, wild rice and
the rind OF the green cocoanut. Their only
weapon is club.
The Man Hunters of Borneo,' and MY
Travels in Siam, was travelling in Asia on
behalf of Mr.. Farini, the English Barnum,
to look for the tall people which were said
to live there. In the court of the King of
Burmah he saw and talked with hairy
family, which was kept by the king for his
amusement, as European kings formerly
kept fools and dwarfs. Book tried in every
way to secure them to take to Europe, but
he failed. He offered 100000 for one of
them, but money is no object there; they
udVC luOkC Va ~ budA tACy hnOW Wudb tO uO
with. These people that Book saw were the
grandchildren of hairy couple which Craw-
ford, who went to Burmah in 1886 as Eng
lsh Plenipotentiary, saw there and of whom
he published an account in his book, "A
Mission to the Court of Ava Crawford
said that these people had been given to the
King of Burmah by the King OF Laos.
Early in 1882 joined Carl Book at Singa-
pore. We went up the Straits of Malacca
and made an expedition into Rumbo, in the
Malay Peninsula, where it was reported that
hairy race lived called Jaccoons, but we
did not find them. We then went to Ran
goon and thence to Bangkok, the capital Of
Siam. Book had once cured the Prime Min
lister of Siam of malignant disorder. This
was the means of procuring us an escort,
twenty elephants and letters to the King of
Laos. After four months journey, partly
by land and partly by river, we reached
Kjand Kjang, the capital of Laos.
Our letter from the King of Siam procured
us he good offices of the King of Laos, who
gave us guides, fresh elephants, an escort of
ten native soldiers, armed with spears and
bows and poisoned arrows. After journey
of several weeks we came to the swamps
where the hairy people lived But we had
hard work to catch them or even to see
them. They are wonderfully alert, their
scent is remarkably keen and they are very
shy and timld. We saw many of their huts
built up in the branches of trees before we
saw person. At last we surprised and sur
rounded family, man, wife and child, at
their meal. We made dash for them and
captured them. The parents made little re-
sistance, but the child fought, scratched and
bit like a monkey. None of them were
clothed in anything but hair. We took
them to Kjang Kjang and there the king re-
fused to allow the woman to GO out of the
country. He had superstition that it
would bring him bad luck. She is kept in
this court and treated with high considera-
tion. She appeared to have little affection
for the child and made no opposition to lis
being taken from her. We started for Bang
kok with the father and child. At a STOP
ping place called Chieng May the whole par
ty was attacked with cholera. The hairy
man we had captured and three Of the escort
died. The rest recovered, though Mr. Book
came very near dying We landed in Eu-
rope with the child October 4, 1882 The
child is the child now known as Krao. We
know by her teeth that she is eight years
old. She talks English and German, can
read and write and has developed the true
feminine love of fine clothes. She is mod
est, affectionate, playful and easily managed
Every part of her body is covered with hair
except her palms and soles. The hair on
ner IOTeaTm grows upWAtu, tudI Oh Qcr Ddck
grows inward toward the spine and will
| form a sort of name, as her father
and mother lad, when she grows older. Her
| forehead is covered with thick black hair,
about three eighths of an inch long. The
| hair of her forehead is entirely distinct
from the hair on her head. Her hands and
feet, though entirely human in shape, have
the prehensile qualities of a monkeys hand.
| She has thirteen dorsal vertebr@ and thirteen
| pairs of ribs, like the chimpanzee, while we
| have only twelve. And she has pouches in
| her mouth in which she carries nuts and
| other food like the apes"
| AT this point the visitor made the remark
which s. lands at the beginning of this arti-
Gle. Professor Shelly disappeared for mo-
| ment and returned with the child. The
pouches in the mouth were there, and in
| each of them was filbert almost as big as a
| hickory nut and all that the professor had
| said about her was proved true. She talked
| intelligently and wrote her own name and
| the VISITORS name on the back of a photo
| graph of herself, which she presented to her
| caller. She has been examined by Profess
sor Virchew, of Berlin University; Pro-
fessor Kirchoff and Professor Weicker, OF
Halle University; Professor Haeckel, of
| Jena; Professor Lucae, of Frankfort on the
Main; Professor Hale, Washington, d. c.,
and many other scientists, and much has
haan Writtap ahouf her in the medical and