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

v.] BORNEO—JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 49Having these undoubted examples of error in tlie dimensionsof Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St. John's friendmade a similar error of measurement, or rather, i:)erhaios, ofmemory ; for we are not told that the dimensions were noteddown at the time they u-ere made. The only figures given by Mr.St. John on his own authority are that "the liead was 15 inchesbroad by 14 inches long." As my largest male was 13i broadacross the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I canquite understand that when the liead arrived at Sarawak fromthe Batang Lupar, after two if not three days' voyage, it was soswollen by decomposition as to measure an inch more than whenit was fresh. On the whole, therefore, I think it will be allowed,that up to this time we have not the least reliable e%idence ofthe existence of Orangs in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 incheshigh.CHAPTER V.BOENEO—JGITRNEY IN THE INTEEIOK.(NOVEMBER 1855 TO JAXT7AKT 1856.)As the wet season was approaching I determined to return toSarawak, sending all my collections with Charles Allen roundby sea, while I myself proposed to go up to the sources of theSadong Eiver, and descend by the Sarawak valley. As theroute was somewhat difficult, 1 took the smallest quantity ofbaggage, and only one servant, a Malay lad named Bujon, whoknew the language of the Sadong Dyaks, with whom he hadtraded. We left the mines on the 27th of Xovember, and thenext day reached the Malay village of Gudong, where I stayeda short time to buy fruit and eggs, and called upon the DatuBandar, or ]\Ialay governor of the place. He lived in a largeand well-built house, very dirty outside and in, and was veryinquisitive about my business, and particularly about the coalmines. These puzzle the natives exceedingly, as thej'^ cannotunderstand the extensive and costly preparations for workingcoal, and cannot believe it is to be used only as fuel when woodis so abundant and so easily obtained. It was evident thatEuropeans seldom came here, for numbers of women skelteredaway as I walked through the village ; and one girl about tenor twelve years old, who had just brought a bamboo full ofwater from the river, threw it down with a cry of horror andalarm the moment she caught sight of me, tui'ned round andjumped into the stream. She swam beautifully, and keptlooking back as if expecting I would follow her, screamingviolently all the time ; while a number of men and boys werelaughing at her ignorant terror.At Jahi, the next village, the stream became so swift in con-