The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-12-19
The Intelligent Little Ones and the Dali and
Stupid Big Species - 6sne Of Then
Attain the Enormous Sizes Of
Six Feet or Nore.

is not unlike one, from its habitual
walk being on all-fours and its general
dog-like carriage. This is, I believe.
the most artful and intelligent of all
monkeys, and is the one trained by
the Malays to gather cocoanuts and
durians. But, like all their race they
are spiteful, ''unchancy" brutes. and
never safe to handle. You can never
trust monkey however tame he
appears. as the late Frank Buckland
found to his cost on more than enc
occasion. I have several times seen a
monkey, which after being some time
in captivity had made an excursion in
to the Jungle, set upon by his wild
relatives. and ANONYMOUSLY hunted
back to the abodes OF men. I don't
know how to account for this. Did
they think that his morals or manners
had deteriorated in the society Of the
anthropoids who couldn't climb trees
and didn't know how to screech?
Then there are the gibbons, these
marvellous trapeze and horizontal bar
performers, with their almost bird-like
flights from tree top to tree top, and
their chorus Of melancholy hootings
at morning and evening, only saw
one specimen of tho siamang in cap
tivity, at the house OF a Malay chief at
Sirdang. It was about 8 feet, high,
but the stretch Of its arms was over
3 feet. A sad-looking, depressed crea-
ture it seemed, as it moved awkwardly
about the floor, tripping itself with its
own arms; but once among the rafters
OF the roof it moved with the agility
Of a spider. OF its gigantic relative,
the orang-utan, am able to give q
few particulars. But I may at least
observe that it is rather ludicrous to
any one who has a smattering of the
Malay tongue to SEQ him so frequently
styled orang-outang, which signifies
literally "a man in debt" utang being
In Malay debt" while ''utan" is for
est. or Jungle. But I always found the
name incomprehensible to the Deli
Malays. whose name for the animal is
''mewas. The Sumatran species ap-
pears to be totally different in its hab-
its from that of Borneo, which APP
proaches human dwellings. and even
plumbers gardens. In Deli at all
events. it inhabits only the denset rat
tan swamps. OF such nature that any
attempts at observation Of its habits
would be impossible; and it makes off
instantly at the approach of man. It
is certain. however, that it attains an
enormous size, fully equalling the much
debated African gorilla. Those speci-
mems which have reached Europe alive
are mere pigmies. have seen skins
in the possession of natives (Bataks)
whose original owners must have been
something terrible to behold; one in
deed could not have been less than 6
feet high and 2 across the shoulders.
though the arms and legs had not been
preserved.
l also saw at Batak house a skull
OF mowas, evidently very old speci-
men, whose teeth and jaws were no
whit inferior in strength to that of a
tiger. l tried to buy it, but the owner
would not part with it. and told q long
story as to how it came into his pos
session From his want of front teeth
and his defective Malay. he was al
most unintelligible; but made out
that 1t had been slain either by his
father or grandfather, after desper-
ate encounter; and, indeed, the deep
cuts in the bone must have been done
by strong arm.
One or two small specimens saw in
captivity. but they seemed to have
less intelligence than any animal
ever saw. and reminded me in all their
actions of Chinese coolies after an over
dose Of opium. 1t is very possible
that their captors ''hocussed" them
with that or something similar to keep
them from escaping. There is be-
lief among certain Of the Samaritan
natives of the existence OF a creature
half ape, half demon, which feeds on
human flesh, and decoys its victims
into the jungle by initiating the
laughter OF women. What foundation
there is for this 1 don't knew. probably
none, except the cannibal practices Of
the Bataks; but it is not at all the
kind OF thing to remember in the
depths Of those gloomy. nightmarish.
swamp jungles, with only two or three
chicken-hearted Javanese in company.
At such times the sudden appearance
of q full-sized mowas would be highly
calculated to "riz the har" for the mo.
ment, II not longer.
The tiger is plentiful enough. but II
h not held In much dread. They are
much more frequent in the older set.
tied districts than in virgin Jungle.