The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

VIII.] SUMATRA. 103and give me a fine opportunity of observing their gambols. Twospecies of Semnopithecus Avere most plentiful—monkeys of aslender form, with very long tails. Not being much .shot at theyare rather bold, and remain quite unconcerned when nativesalone are present ; but when I came out to look at them, theywould stare for a minute or two and then make off. They taketremendous leaps from the branches of one tree to those ofanother a little lower, and it is very amusing when one strongleader takes a bold jump, to see the others following with moreor less trepidation ; and it often happens that one or two of thelast seem quite unable to make up their minds to leap till therest are disappearing, when, as if in despei'ation at being leftalone, they throw themselves frantically into the air, and oftengo crashing through the slender branches and fall to the ground.A very curious ape, the Siamang, was also rather abundant,but it is much less bold tlian the monkeys, keeping to the virginforests and avoiding villages. This species is allied to the littlelong-armed apes of the genus Hylobates, but is considerablylarger, and differs from them by having the two first fingers of thefeet united together, nearly to the end, whence its Latin name,Siamanga syndactyla. It moves much more slowly than theactive Hylobates, keeping lower down in tree.s, and not indulgingin such tremendous leaps ; but it is still very active, and bymeans of its immense long arms, five feet six inches across in anadult about three feet high, can swing itself along among thetrees at a great rate. 1 purchased a small one, which had beencaught by the natives and tied uj? so tightly as to hurt it. It wasrather savage at first, and tried to bite ; but v^hen we had releasedit and given it two poles under the verandah to hangupon, securing it bj'' a short cord running along the pole vrith aring so that it could move easily, it became more contented, andwould swing itself about with great rapidity. It ate almost anykind of fruit and rice, and I was in hopes to have brought it toEngland but it died just before I started. It took a dislike tome at fii-st which I tried to get over by feeding it constantlymyself. One day, however, it bit me so sharply while giving itfood, that I lost patience and gave it rather a severe beating,which I regretted afterwards, as from that time it disliked ruemore than ever. It would allow- my Malay boys to play with it,and for hours together would swing by its arms from pole topole and on to the rafters of the verandah, with so much easeand rapidity that it Avas a constant source of amusement to us.When I returned to Singapore it attracted great attention, as noone had seen a Siamang alive before, although it is not uncommonin_£ome parts of the Malay peninsula.^As the Orang-utan is known to inhabit Sumatra, and was infact first discovered there, I made many inquiries about it ; butnone of the natives had ever heard of such an animal, nor couldI find any of the Dutch officials who knew anything about it.We may conclude, therefore, tliat it does not inhabit the great