I
Did Not Care To Follow It, As It Was Swampy, And In Parts
Dangerous, And I Might Easily Have Lost Myself In The Eagerness
Of Pursuit.
On the 12th of May I found another, which behaved in a very
similar manner, howling and hooting with rage, and throwing down
branches.
I shot at it five times, and it remained dead on the
top of the tree, supported in a fork in such a manner that it
would evidently not fall. I therefore returned home, and luckily
found some Dyaks, who came back with me, and climbed up the tree
for the animal. This was the first full-grown specimen I had
obtained; but it was a female, and not nearly so large or
remarkable as the full-grown males. It was, however, 3 ft. 6 in.
high, and its arms stretched out to a width of 6 ft. 6 in. I
preserved the skin of this specimen in a cask of arrack,
andprepared a perfect skeleton, which was afterwards purchased
for the Derby Museum.
Only four days afterwards some Dyaks saw another Mias near the
same place, and came to tell me. We found it to be a rather large
one, very high up on a tall tree. At the second shot it fell
rolling over, but almost immediately got up again and began to
climb. At a third shot it fell dead. This was also a full-grown
female, and while preparing to carry it home, we found a young
one face downwards in the bog. This little creature was only
about a foot long, and had evidently been hanging to its mother
when she first fell. Luckily it did not appear to have been
wounded, and after we had cleaned the mud out of its mouth it
began to cry out, and seemed quite strong and active. While
carrying it home it got its hands in my beard, and grasped so
tightly that I had great difficulty in getting free, for the
fingers are habitually bent inwards at the last joint so as to
form complete hooks. At this time it had not a single tooth, but
a few days afterwards it cut its two lower front teeth.
Unfortunately, I had no milk to give it, as neither Malays-
Chinese nor Dyaks ever use the article, and I in vain inquired
for any female animal that could suckle my little infant. I was
therefore obliged to give it rice-water from a bottle with a
quill in the cork, which after a few trials it learned to suck
very well. This was very meagre diet, and the little creature did
not thrive well on it, although I added sugar and cocoa-nut milk
occasionally, to make it more nourishing. WhenI put my finger in
its mouth it sucked with great vigour, drawing in its cheeks with
all its might in the vain effort to extract some milk, and only
after persevering a long time would it give up in disgust, and
set up a scream very like that of a baby in similar
circumstances.
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