As
A Last Resource We All Began Pulling At The Creepers, Which Shook
The Tree Very Much, And, After A Few Minutes, When We Had Almost
Given Up All Hope, Down He Came With A Crash And A Thud Like The
Fall Of A Giant.
And he was a giant, his head and body being
fully as large as a man's. He was of the kind called by the Dyaks
"Mias Chappan," or "Mias Pappan," which has the skin of the face
broadened out to a ridge or fold at each side.
His outstretched
arms measured seven feet three inches across, and his height,
measuring fairly from the top of the head to the heel was four
feet two inches. The body just below the arms was three feet two
inches round, and was quite as long as a man's, the legs being
exceedingly short in proportion. On examination we found he had
been dreadfully wounded. Both legs were broken, one hip-joint and
the root of the spine completely shattered, and two bullets were
found flattened in his neck and jaws. Yet he was still alive when
he fell. The two Chinamen carried him home tied to a pole, and I
was occupied with Charley the whole of the next day preparing the
skin and boiling the bones to make a perfect skeleton, which are
now preserved in the Museum at Derby.
About ten days after this, on June 4th, some Dyaks came to tell
us that the day before a Mias had nearly killed one of their
companions.
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