Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917Lumholtz, Carl
History
Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917
Lumholtz, Carl
Borneo -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Borneo; Natural history -- Borneo
This intelligent, man-like ape is probably not so common in Dutch Borneo
as he is supposed to be. Mr. Harry C. Raven, who collected animals in the
northeastern part, told me that in a year he had shot only one. The
orang-utans are generally found in Southern Borneo and do not go very far
inland; in Central Borneo they are extremely rare, almost unknown. It is
to be hoped that these interesting animals will not soon be exterminated.
A Malay, the only hunter in Sampit, told me that some are so old that they
can no longer climb trees. When wounded an orang-utan cries like a child
in quite an uncanny manner, as a Dutch friend informed me. According to
the Dayaks, it will wrest the spear from its attacker and use it on him.
They also maintain, as stated elsewhere, that orang-utans, contrary to the
generally accepted belief, are able to swim. Mr. B. Brouers, of
Bandjermasin, has seen monkeys swim; the red, the gray, and the black are
all capable of this, he said.
From a reliable source I have the following story. Eight Malays who had
made camp on a small promontory on the river, one morning were sitting
about sunning themselves when they were surprised to see an orang-utan
approaching. He entered their camp and one of the Malays nearest to him
instinctively drew his parang. Doubtless regarding this as an unfriendly
action, he seized one of the poles which formed the main framework of
their shelter and pulled it up, breaking the rattan fastenings as if they
were paper. The Malays now all attacked with their parangs, but the
orang-utan, taking hold of the end of the pole, swept it from side to side
with terrifying effect, and as the locality made it impossible to surround
him, they all soon had to take to the water to save themselves.
My informant, who had spent several years travelling in Southern Borneo
buying rubber from the natives, told me that one day his prahu passed a
big orang-utan sitting on the branch of a tree. The Malay paddlers shouted
to it derisively, and the animal began to break off branches and hurled
sticks at the prahu with astonishing force, making the Malays paddle off
as fast as they could. The several points of similarity between man and
highly developed monkeys are the cause of the amusing saying of the
natives of Java: the monkeys can talk, but they don't want to, because
they don't like to work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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