The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-12-18
MONKEYS IN SUMATRA.
REMARKABLE VARIETIES SEEN
BY A TRAVELLER.
The Intelligent Little Ones and tho Dull and
Stupid Big Species - S,me Of Them
Attain the Enormous Sizes Of
Six Feet or More.


years in Sunatra, that country Of
which SO little is known, writes for
Chambers Journal q most entertain
ing account OF the animals he saw
there. OF monkeys, which throng
the land, he says tho commonest
species is the black macaque, but an
other almost equally plentiful, is the
plg-talled macaque, the 'brok" of the
Malays. This monkey is about the
size of a bull terrier, and at distance
is not unlike one, from its habitual
walk being on all-fours and its general
dog-like carriage. This is, 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 auckland
found to his cost on more than one
occasion. I have several times seen
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-ljke
flights from tree top to tree top, and
their chorus of melancholy hootings
at morning and evening, l only saw
one specimen of the siamang in cap
tivity, at the house of Malay chief at
Slrdang. 1t was about 3 feet high,
but the stretch of its arms was over
5 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 ralters
of the roof it moved with the agility
OF a spider OF its gigantic relative,
the orang-utan, I am able to give a
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 see him so frequently
styled orang- outang, which signifies
literally ga man in debit utang being
IN Malay ''debt," while ''utan' is for
est or jungle. But always found the
name incomprehensible to the Deli
Malays, whose name for the animal is
''mewas." The Sumatran species an
pears to be totally different in it's hab-
its from that of Borneo, which ap-
proaches human dwellings,, and even
plumbers gardens. In Deli, at ali
events, it inhabits only the denset rat
tan swamps, of such a. nature that any
attempts at observation of its habits
would be impossible; and it makes of
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. I 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
1eet high and 2 across the shoulders,
though the arms and legs had not been
preserved.
l also saw at a Batak house a skull
OF mowas, evidently a very old speci-
men, whose teeth and jaws were no
Whit inferior in strength to that of a
tiger. | tried to buy it, but the owner
would not part with it, and told a 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 I 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 I saw in
captivity, but they seemed to have
less Intelligence than any animal l
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 "hocussedn them
with that or something similar to keep
them from escaping. There is a be-
lief among certain of the Samaritan
natives of the existence of 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 I don't know. 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 full-sized mowas would be highly
calculated to "riz the har:' for tha no.