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 grasped his gun and followed, lured by the demoniac shape. A
little of the superstition of the natives had gotten into his veins: he
dare not kill the thing unless it came toward him, and he had to shoot
it in self-defense.
It traveled in the trees about as fast as he could on the ground.
Occasionally it would stop and chatter at him, throwing sticks in a most
human way, as if to order him back.
Finally, the instincts of the naturalist got the better of the man, and
he shot the animal. It came tumbling to the ground with a terrific
crash, grasping at the vines and leaves as it fell.
It was quite dead, but Wallace approached it with great caution. It
proved to be a female, of moderate size, in height about three and a
half feet, six feet across from finger to finger. Needless to say that
Wallace had to do the skinning and the mounting of the skeleton alone.
His servants had chills of fear if asked to approach it. The skeleton of
this particular orang can now be seen in the Derby Museum.
In a few hours after killing his first orang, Wallace heard a peculiar
crying in the forest, and on search found a young one, evidently the
baby of the one he had killed. The baby did not show any fear at all,
evidently thinking it was with one of its kind, for it clung to him
piteously, with an almost human tenderness.
Says Wallace:
"When handled or nursed it was very quiet and contented, but when laid
down by itself would invariably cry; and for the first few nights was
very restless and noisy. I soon found it necessary to wash the little
mias as well. After I had done so a few times it came to like the
operation, and after rolling in the mud would begin crying, and continue
until I took it out and carried it to the spout, when it immediately
became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush of the
cold water, and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running
over its head. It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when
I brushed its hair seemed to be perfectly happy, lying quite still with
its arms and legs stretched out. It was a never-failing amusement to
observe the curious changes of countenance by which it would express its
approval or dislike of what was given to it. The poor little thing would
lick its lips, draw in its cheeks, and turn up its eyes with an
expression of the most supreme satisfaction, when it had a mouthful
particularly to its taste. On the other hand, when its food was not
sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with
its tongue for a moment, as if trying to extract what flavor there was,
and then push it all out between its lips. If the same food was
continued, it would proceed to scream and kick about violently, exactly
like a baby in a passion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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