Some of the men, who wandered farther than the others in search of wild fruits, reported seeing some very large monkeys, which they said might be orang-utans, and whilst speaking of them I was reminded of the various stories told of people being carried off by them. I have referred to this subject in my account of my journeys among the Sea Dayaks, but although many stories are related of the male orang-utan carrying off young Dayak maidens into the jungle, yet it is seldom that we hear of the female orang-utan running off with a man. But the Muruts of Padas tell the following narrative, which, they say, may be believed. Some years ago, one of their young men was wandering in the jungle, armed with a sumpitan, or blow-pipe, and a sword. He came to the banks of a pebbly stream, and being a hot day, he thought he would have a bathe. He placed his arms and clothes at the foot of a tree, and then went into the water. After a time, being sufficiently refreshed, he was returning to dress, when he perceived an enormous female orang-utan standing between him and the tree. She advanced towards him, as he stood paralyzed by surprise, and seizing him by the arm, compelled him to follow her to a branching tree and climb up it. When he reached her resting-place, consisting of boughs and branches woven into a comfortable nest, she made him enter. There he remained some months jealously watched by his strange companion, fed by her on fruits and the cabbage of the palm, and rarely permitted to touch the earth with his feet, but compelled to move from tree to tree. This life continued some time, till the female orang-utan becoming less watchful permitted the Murut more liberty. He availed himself of it to slip down the trunk of the tree and run to the place where he had formerly left his weapons. She, seeing his attempted escape, followed, to be pierced, as she approached him, by a poisoned arrow. I was told if I would ascend the Padas river as far as the man’s village, I might hear the story from his own lips, as he was still alive. _12th._--Walked on a mile, the men excessively lazy. Finding the river smooth, they proposed trying rafts; so we stopped to construct them. One of the men, observing that I was dining on a cabbage-palm boiled in a little rice-water, presented me with a cup full of uncooked rice. I was very grateful to him for it; but we put it by, in case the palms should fail us, as they do in some districts.