The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-15
GIANT APES OF RoRNEo.
Interesting Facts About Able-bodied An
thropOids That Live in Trees.

chiefly made in Borneo," said Prof
Henry a. Ward, the famous natural
science collector, the other day. "That
great island is the home of the orang,
which is the most arboreal of all
monkeys The animals live in trees
altogether, rarely if ever visiting the
ground. 1t takes two good murksmen
to shoot one, because they dodge
around the trunks. They do all their
fighting aloft, and it is great fun to see
them drop the nrmfuls of fruit they
have gathered in contests for its possess
sion. They are plentiful in the low
lands near the coast. 1t is rarely that
body ventures into the interior, be-
cause there the head-hunting natives
prowl. Among them each man is re-
CURED to have secured II head before he
Is permitted to marry, and on this ac-
count the young gentlemen savages IRE
continually looking about for some
body to kill This makes travelling dis
agreeable.
One of the most noticeable features
of the landscape of Borneo is the nests
OF orangs which are scattered about
thickly among tho tall trees From
their number one might get greatly
exaggerated impression of the plenti-
fulness of the species, unless it were
understood how and for what purpose
these roosting places are constructed.
The beasts are greatly annoyed by
flies, from which they are able to pro-
tcct the front part of their bodies with
their hands, but they cannot keep the
vicious insects from biting them in the
rear, and SO they gather quantity of
leaves nnG branches md NIL ho,
into couches to repose against among
the boughs. A protection of this sort
serves very we'll for awhile, but pres
emily its material begins to dccomposc
and the. dccaying leaves attract the
flies, which the orang is so anxious to
get rid of. Then he is obliged to make
another nest of fresh stuff, and SO he
may require dozens of them in the
course of year. Inasmuch as lie does
not take the trouble to remove the old
ones, they remain to adorn the tree top
in which lie swings about
"0rangs have IL very curious method
of fighting. In their conflicts among
themselves, which are frequent, their
effort is always to seize the fingers of
their anniversaries and bite them A
very beautiful group of these animals Mt
the National museum, mounted by Mr.
Hornaday, admirably illustrates typic-
nj encounter OF the sort. 1t is owing to
this method of battle that it is almost
impossible to procure skin which does
not lack some of the fingers If defend
ing itself against n man the beast will
always attempt to grab the arms of his
human opponent SO as to chew off his
fingers. For this purpose its jaw is ex-
cellently adapted, being enormously
powerful and equipped with huge in
cisors.
The favoritc food of the orang is the
'durion' fruit, which is, perhaps the
most delicious in the world, uniting, as
it does, the tlavors of the peach, the
pear and the strawberry. Like most
things nearly perfect, however, this
fruit has n drawback. namely, that it
leaves n bad taste in the mouth the
next day after it is eaten which is more
abominable than can either be de-
scribed or conceived. To protect itself
from the rain the orang crooks its arms
over its head. The hair on the orang's
upper arm points downwards, while on
the lower arm it points upward, the
apparent purpose being to shed the
rain like thatch when the attitude /
have described is assumed.
THE other great ape which makes
its home in Borneo is the gibbon, which
is a small animal compared with the
orang, weighing only about forty or
fifty pounds. 1t is very frail in its,
bodily makeup The head is set
squarely upon the shoulders, and it
looks upward. When walking on the
ground it balances itself along
like walker on the tight rope. It's re-
markable power of grasp and deXterity
in using its hands is equally with the
shape of its Uranium an index of it's SUI
perior intelligence, perhaps because it is
able to take hold of n greater number of
things and examine them. The gibbon
is natural acrobat. It's trapeze per-
formances in trees are simply marvel
Gus.
The animals go in droves, whereas
orangs live by families, and one of the
most interesting spectacles Imaginable
is to see a troop of them crossing n
great gap in the forest by throwing
themselves in succession through the
air, each one taking a swing or two to
gather momentum before launching
himself. So great is their agility that
in executing feats of this sort they seem
like birds.
Natives in the countries inhabited
by great apes, regard them always
as human beings of inferior types, and
it is for this reason that for n long time
1t was found impossible to get hold of
an entire gorilla skin. because the
savages considered it religiously neces-
sary to cut off the hands and feet of the
animals when they killed them. Just as
they do with their enemies, possibly
for the purpose of rendering them
harmless in case they should by any