How Easy It Is To Be Deceived As To The
Height Of These Animals Is Well Shown In The Case Of The Sumatran
Orang, The Skin Of Which Was Described By Dr. Clarke Abel.
The
captain and crew who killed this animal declared that when alive
he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they
thought he was 7 feet high; but that, when he was killed and lay
upon the ground, they found he was only about 6 feet.
Now it will
hardly be credited that the skin of this identical animal exists
in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr. Blyth, the late curator, states
"that it is by no means one of the largest size"; which means
that it is about 4 feet high!
Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of
Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St. John's friend
made a similar error of measurement, or rather, perhaps, of
memory; for we are not told that the dimensions were noted down
at the time they were made. The only figures given by Mr. St.
John on his own authority are that "the head was 15 inches broad
by 14 inches long." As my largest male was 13 1/2 broad across
the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I can quite
understand that when the head arrived at Sarawak from the Batang
Lupar, after two or three days' voyage, it was so swollen by
decomposition as to measure an inch more than when it was fresh.
On the whole, therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up to
this time we have not the least reliable evidence of the
existence of Orangs in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 inches high.
CHAPTER V.
BORNEO - JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.
(NOVEMBER 1855 TO JANUARY 1856.)
As the wet season was approaching, I determined to return to
Sarawak, sending all my collections with Charles Allen around by
sea, while I myself proposed to go up to the sources of the
Sadong River and descend by the Sarawak valley. As the route was
somewhat difficult, I took the smallest quantity of baggage, and
only one servant, a Malay lad named Bujon, who knew the language
of the Sadong Dyaks, with whom he had traded. We left the mines
on the 27th of November, and the next day reached the Malay
village of Gúdong, where I stayed a short time to buy fruit and
eggs, and called upon the Datu Bandar, or Malay governor of the
place. He lived in a large, arid well-built house, very dirty
outside and in, and was very inquisitive about my business, and
particularly about the coal-mines. These puzzle the natives
exceedingly, as they cannot understand the extensive and costly
preparations for working coal, and cannot believe it is to be
used only as fuel when wood is so abundant and so easily
obtained. It was evident that Europeans seldom came here, for
numbers of women skeltered away as I walked through the village
and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had just brought
a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it down with a cry
of horror and alarm the moment she caught sight of me, turned
around and jumped into the stream. She swam beautifully, and kept
looking back as if expecting I would follow her, screaming
violently all the time; while a number of men and boys were
laughing at her ignorant terror.
At Jahi, the next village, the stream became so swift in
consequence of a flood, that my heavy boat could make no way, and
I was obliged to send it back and go on in a very small open one.
So far the river had been very monotonous, the banks being
cultivated as rice-fields, and little thatched huts alone
breaking the unpicturesque line of muddy bank crowned with tall
grasses, and backed by the top of the forest behind the
cultivated ground. A few hours beyond Jahi we passed the limits
of cultivation, and had the beautiful virgin forest coming down
to the water's edge, with its palms and creepers, its noble
trees, its ferns, and epiphytes. The banks of the river were,
however, still generally flooded, and we had some difficulty in
finding a dry spot to sleep on. Early in the morning we reached
Empugnan, a small Malay village, situated at the foot of an
isolated mountain which had been visible from the mouth of the
Simunjon River. Beyond here the tides are not felt, and we now
entered upon a district of elevated forest, with a finer
vegetation. Large trees stretch out their arms across the stream,
and the steep, earthy banks are clothed with ferns and
zingiberaceous plants.
Early in the afternoon we arrived at Tabókan, the first village
of the Hill Dyaks. On an open space near the river, about twenty
boys were playing at a game something like what we call
"prisoner's base;" their ornaments of beads and brass wire and
their gay-coloured kerchiefs and waist-cloths showing to much
advantage, and forming a very pleasing sight. On being called by
Bujon, they immediately left their game to carry my things up to
the "headhouse," - a circular building attached to most Dyak
villages, and serving as a lodging for strangers, the place for
trade, the sleeping-room of the unmarried youths, and the general
council-chamber. It is elevated on lofty posts, has a large
fireplace in the middle and windows in the roof all round, and
forms a very pleasant and comfortable abode. In the evening it
was crowded with young men and boys, who came to look at me. They
were mostly fine young fellows, and I could not help admiring the
simplicity and elegance of their costume. Their only dress is
the long "chawat," or waist-cloth, which hangs down before and
behind. It is generally of blue cotton, ending in three broad
bands of red, blue, and white.
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