Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great ScientistsHubbard, Elbert
Science
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists
Hubbard, Elbert
Scientists -- Biography
Wallace states that the only foe for which the orang really has a hatred
is the crocodile. It seems to share with man a shuddering fear of
snakes, although orangs have no part in making Kentucky famous. But the
crocodile is his natural and hereditary enemy. And as if to get even
with this ancient foe, who occasionally snaps off a young orang in his
prime, the orangs will often locate a big crocodile, and jumping on his
back beat him with clubs; and when he opens his gigantic mouth, the
female orangs will fill the cavity with sticks and stones, and keep up
the fight until the crocodile succumbs and quits this vale of crocodile
tears.
The orang is distinct and different from the chimpanzee and gorilla,
which are found only in Western Africa.
In Borneo, the "man-ape" is quite numerous. This is the animal that has
given rise to all those tales about "the wild man of Borneo," which that
good man, P. T. Barnum, kept alive by exhibiting a fine specimen.
Barnum's original "wild man" lived at Waltham, Massachusetts, and
belonged to the Baptist Church. He recently died worth a hundred
thousand dollars, which money he left to found a school for young
ladies.
The orang, or mias, hides in the swampy jungles, and very rarely comes
to the ground. The natives regard them as a sort of sacred object, and
have a great horror of killing them. Indeed, a person who kills a
man-ape, they regard as a murderer; and so when Wallace announced to his
attendants that he wanted to secure several specimens of these "wild men
of the woods," they cried, "Alas! he is making a collection: it will be
our turn next!" And they fled in terror.
Wallace then hired another set of servants and resolved to make no
confidants, but just go ahead and find his game.
He had hunted for weeks through forest and jungle, but never a glimpse
or sight of the man-ape! He had almost given up the search, and
concluded with several English scientists that this orang-utan was a
part of that great fabric of pseudo-science invented by imaginative
sailormen, who took most of their inland little journeys around the
capstan. And so musing, seated in the doorway of his bamboo house, he
looked out upon the forest, and there only a few yards away, swinging
from tree to tree, was a man-ape. It seemed to him to be about five
times as large as a man.
He seized his gun and approached; the beast stopped, glared, and railed
at him in a voice of wrath. It broke off branches and threw sticks at
him.
Wallace thought of the offer made him by the South Kensington Museum:
"One hundred pounds in gold for an adult male, skin and skeleton to be
properly preserved and mounted; seventy-five pounds for a female."
The huge animal showed its teeth, cast one glance of scornful contempt
on the puny explorer, and started on, swinging thirty feet at a stretch
and catching hold of the limbs with its two pairs of hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account