[Illustration: THE ORANG-UTAN.]
{171} _Pithecus satyrus_, Blumenb., Abbild., Naturh. Geg., fig. xii.
(1810); Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 88 (1812); Latr., in Buff. Hist.
Nat., xxxv., p. 166, pl. 3; xxxvi., p. 276; Cuv. et Geoffr., Hist. Nat.,
Mamm., livr. xlii.; Desmar., Mamm., p. 50 (1820); Martin, Mammif. Anim.,
p. 388 (1841); Owen, Tr. Z. S., iv., p. 82, pl. 29 (1862).
_Simia wurmbii_, Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 21 (1820); Fischer, Syn. Mamm.,
p. 32 (1829); Owen, Tr. Z. S., ii., p. 165, pls. 30-32 (1841); Brooke, P.
Z. S., 1841, p. 55 (Mias Pappan).
_Pithecus wurmbii_, Owen, Tr. Z. S., iv., p. 95, pl. xxxiii. (1862).
_Pongo abelii_, Clarke, Asiat. Res., xvi., 489 (1826); id., Edinb. Phil.
Journ., p. 375 (1827).
_Simia abelii_, Fischer, Syn. Mamm., p. 10 (1829; Sumatra).
_Simia morio_, Owen, P. Z. S., 1836, p. 92; id., Tr. Z. S., ii., p. 168,
pls. 33, 34 (1838); Brooke, P. Z. S., 1841, p. 55 (Mias Kassar); Wallace,
Malay Archip., i., p. 84 (1869); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1891, p. 301;
Beddard, Tr. Z. S., xiii., p. 20 (1893; Sumatra and Borneo).
_Pithecus morio_, Martin, Mammif. An., p. 395 (1841).
_Simia gigantica_, Pearson, J. A. S. Beng., x. (2), p. 660 (1841).
_Pithecus bicolor_, Is. Geoffr., Arch. Mus., Paris, ii., p. 526 (1841;
Sumatra).
_Pithecus owenii_, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng., xxii., p. 375 (1853).
_Pithecus curtus_, Blyth, _op. cit._, xxiv., p. 525 (1855).
(_Plate XXXIX._)
CHARACTERS.--The Orangs are large and heavy in build, with the head set on
a very thick neck, the hair long and directed forward, and the abdomen
round and protuberant. The naked face is melancholy. On each side of the
face there is, in the {172}full grown male, but not in the female, a large,
soft, smooth tumour-like and flexible expansion, which gives a remarkable
breadth to the visage. The forehead is nude and purplish in colour; the
middle of the face across the nose is sooty-brown. The lips are broad,
extremely mobile, and of the colour of the skin--generally of a yellowish
brown; and, when eating and drinking, the animal thrusts them far out. The
lower jaw retreats at once from the lips, and there is therefore no chin,
as so recognised in Man. The ears are more like those of Man, small and
flat. The arms are very long, reaching to the ankles in the erect posture,
their span being twice the animal's height. The arm is equal in length to
the fore-arm; the hands are long and narrow. The fingers are united by a
web; the thumb short and often without its terminal joint. The back of the
hand is but slightly haired. The hair on the arm is directed downwards and
that on the fore-arm upwards, so as to meet at the elbow. The legs are very
short and bowed at the ankles; the long and narrow foot, which is
articulated obliquely to the leg, is longer than the hand and (except in
the Gorilla) is longer than in any other Ape. The great-toe is very short
and is often destitute of a nail.
The cranium is very variable in form; the crown is high and pointed, the
forehead round and elevated, and the occipital region convex. No two
individuals are exactly alike. "The slope of the profile, the projection of
the muzzle, together with the size of the cranium, offer differences as
decided as those existing between the most strongly marked forms of the
Caucasian and African crania in the human species. The orbits vary in width
and height; the cranial ridge is either single or double, either much or
little developed, independent of age, being sometimes more strongly
developed in the less {173}aged animal." (_Wallace._) The supra-orbital
ridges are prominent, without being particularly so. The contour of the
head is more human in form, however, in youth than in age, when the
forehead is large and convex. The canine teeth are very large and tusk-like
in the male, but smaller in the female. The upper molars exhibit on their
crowns complex rugosities; they have four cusps and an oblique ridge, as in
Man, from the front inner, to the hind outer, cusp; the lower molars are
five-cusped. The permanent canine teeth sometimes appear before the last
permanent molar has come into place.
The thigh-bone (_femur_) has no round ligament binding its articular head
into its socket in the pelvis, a disposition which, while it affords
greater flexibility and freedom to the hind-limbs in climbing, gives it
much less firmness in walking on the ground. The proportionate length of
the foot to its limb is greater in this genus than in any other of the
_Anthropoidea_. The ankle (_tarsus_) is very short, and the bones
(_phalanges_) of the toes form the longest part of the foot. The great-toe
is especially short and divergent, its terminal bone being often absent,
while the bones of the digits are long and curved. On account of the form
of certain bones of the tarsus and their inter-mobility the foot is set
obliquely to the leg through the action of one of its muscles (the
_tibialis anticus_), so that the sole is pulled to the inside when walking.
The outer edge of the foot, with the upper side of the fourth and fifth
toes, is therefore applied to the ground in the act of progression, while
the spread thumb supports most of the animal's weight. The wrist (_carpus_)
contains the complete number of nine bones, as it possesses the _os
centrale_ wanting in Man and the Chimpanzees.
The breast-bone in the Orang is composed of ossifications {174}arranged in
pairs, instead of being formed of only two bones, as in the other members
of the family.
Between the neck and the complex and solid sacral bone there are sixteen
vertebrae, and there are twelve pairs of ribs, as in Man. The vertebral
column presents slight but distinct indications of the curvature so
characteristic of Man, and is nearly as much concave forward in its
dorso-lumbar region as in a child.
The Orang-utan has no uvula as in Man and in the Chimpanzees. It possesses
enormous air sacs--dilatations of the lateral cavities (ventricles) of the
larynx, found in Man--which extend over the throat, the top of the chest,
and as far as the arm-pits; these may even unite in the middle line. Its
great-toe and thumb lack the long flexor muscles which are present in Man
and in the Chimpanzees.
"Of all Apes, the Orang has the brain which is most like that of Man;
indeed, it may be said to be like Man's in all respects, save that it is
much inferior in size and weight, and that the cerebrum is more
symmetrically convoluted and less complicated with secondary and tertiary
convolutions." (_Mivart._) The cerebral hemispheres are higher in
proportion to their length than in any other _Anthropomorpha_, but they are
elongated and depressed, as compared with Man. (_Huxley._)
The colour of the hair of the Orang is a brick- or yellowish-red all over,
but in old males it is sometimes darker on the limbs. Its length (twelve to
sixteen inches) is greatest, and its character coarsest, on the arms,
thighs, and shoulders; the face, ears, and throat are bare, and the skin of
a reddish- or yellowish-brown colour; but there is a thin beard on the
chin. The back of the hand and fingers are also thickly haired; on {175}the
arms the hair grows towards the elbow, as on the fore-arm, both meeting in
a point at the elbow.
Between childhood and middle age the skin varies in colour from dark
yellowish in the younger individuals to blackish-brown, or black, in the
adults (the latter colour largely predominating). Very often the face and
neck are almost or quite black, the palms light brown, and the breast and
abdomen mulatto-yellow. (_Hornaday._)
In size also the Orang varies greatly; the males being larger than the
females. The largest male shot by Wallace measured 4 feet 2 inches.
Hornaday, however, shot several exceeding 4 feet 4 inches, his tallest
being 4 feet 6 inches, and one male was 3 feet 10½ inches; while his
largest female measured 4 feet, and the smallest adult female 3 feet 6
inches. The breadth across the face in males varies from 11½ to 13½ inches,
and in females 5½ to 6 inches. The young at birth is large in comparison
with the size of the female. A male weighs often from 120 to 160 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION.--The Orang-utan is confined to the islands of Borneo and
Sumatra, in the East Indian Archipelago. In Sumatra it is far less common
than in Borneo, and is found on the lowlands of the eastern coast, in the
Palembang Residency, and the Djambi Sultanate. As far as I could ascertain,
the natives of the southern portion of Palembang and of the Lampongs were
quite ignorant of the animal, except as a name. In Borneo it inhabits the
low forest-covered swamplands between the coast and the interior mountains,
from the north of the island, round the west, southern, and eastern coasts,
as far as the Mahakkam river, if not round the entire coast, as is most
likely. In the dry season they retire into the {176}depths of the forest.
In the fruit season they come nearer to the coast, while at the height of
the rains they frequent the river banks.
HABITS.--The Orang-utan, the "forest-living Man" of the Malays, and the
"Mias" of the Bornean natives, lives solitary in the leafy tops of the
trees in the forests, except at the pairing season. A female is generally
accompanied by one of her progeny, sometimes by two, the one always an
infant, and the other a more or less grown but immature individual of a
previous birth; for her young--of which she has only one at a birth--do not
shift for themselves before they are approaching two years of age. At what
age they attain maturity is unknown, but it is probably not before twelve
to fifteen years. The infant clings by its arms to its mother when she is
climbing, by grasping the hair of her arm-pits, while its legs embrace her
sides above the hip. As already observed, the Orangs have none of the
marvellous agility of the Gibbons. They are slow and deliberate in their
movements; "surprisingly awkward and uncouth," according to Sir James
Brooke; but their long and extremely powerful arms and hook-like fingers,
which close with an amazing rigidity of grip, and their mobile legs and
hand-like feet, enable them to lift and swing their bodies with great
precision from branch to branch and tree to tree. "I have frequently seen
them," says Hornaday, "swing along beneath the large limbs as a gymnast
swings along a tight rope, reaching six feet at a stretch. When passing
from one tree to another, the Orang reaches out and gathers in its grasp a
number of small branches that he feels sure will sustain his weight, and
then swings himself across." On the ground all this is very different. He
walks very badly and unsteadily; he uses his arms as crutches, leaning his
weight upon them with his fingers as already described, and {177}swings
himself forward on them. On the ground the Orang does not move, according
to Sir James Brooke, so fast as to preclude a man keeping up with him
easily through a clear forest. "The very long arms, which, when he runs,
are but little bent, raise the body of the Orang remarkably, so that he
assumes much the posture of a very old man bent down by age, and making his
way along by the help of a stick." (_Huxley._) The Orang, however, rarely
comes to the ground of his own accord.
Mr. Martin gives the following account of a specimen which lived in the
Zoological Gardens in London many years ago:--"Its attitudes were as varied
as can be imagined, its actions slow and deliberate; excepting, indeed, on
one or two occasions when it wished to follow its keeper, who had opened
the door of its cage; even then it did not bound from branch to branch like
a Monkey, but stretching out its arms, and grasping the branches within its
reach, it swung itself onward, and so descended to the floor, along which
it hobbled awkwardly and unsteadily. One thing, as respects both the hands
and feet of this Orang, could not be overlooked; namely, that their mode of
application to the branches, during the arboreal evolutions of the animal,
was hook-like; and, from the power of the adductor muscles of the thumb,
and flexor muscles of the fingers, tenacious and enduring, rather than
tight and fixed. This observation is especially applicable to the feet; in
these the shortness of the thumb, though capable in itself of firm and
close application, renders it rather a fulcrum, against which the long
fingers oppose their stress, than, by folding upon them, an adjunct to them
in the act of prehension; and hence, though admirably fitted for the
movements of the animal among the trees of the forest, and the kind {178}of
hold necessary for freedom and security, the foot of the Orang is, perhaps,
less energetic in the grasp than that of the semi-arboreal Chimpanzee, in
which the hind-thumb is proportionately longer, and the foot broader, than
in the Orang."
The Orang drinks by dipping its fingers into the water, as the Siamang
does, and sucking the water off its knuckles, or dropping it into its
protruded trough-like lower lip.
"The rude _hut_ which they are stated to build in trees, would be more
properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort.
The facility with which they form this nest is curious, and I had an
opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together and seat
herself within a minute." (_Sir James Brooke._) "The Orang usually
selects," writes Mr. Hornaday, "a small tree, a sapling, in fact, and
builds his nest in its top, even though his weight causes it to sway
alarmingly. He always builds his nest low down, often within twenty-five
feet of the ground, and seldom higher than forty feet. Sometimes it is
fully four feet in diameter, but usually not more than three, and quite
flat at the top. The branches are merely piled crosswise. I have never been
able to ascertain to a certainty, but it is my opinion that an Orang, after
building a nest, sleeps in it several nights in succession, unless he is
called upon to leave its neighbourhood." In this nest he sleeps during the
night or lies spread out on his back during the day, with his hands and
feet grasping the nearest branches. The food of the Orang-Utan--whose
eating-time is during the middle of the day--consists of leaves and nuts,
especially of the durian, the rambutan, and the mangosteen.
The Orang-Utan is of a very shy and uncertain disposition. If captured when
full-grown, it is wild and ferocious; when {179}young it is easily trained;
but never lives in captivity to attain maturity. When attacked and hard
driven by human enemies, and it gets to close quarters with them, it can be
a formidable and dangerous antagonist, and has been known to fatally injure
its assailants. It will rarely, unprovoked, attack a man. "In one case," as
Dr. A. R. Wallace has recorded, "a female Mias on a durian-tree kept up for
at least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy
spined fruits as large as 32-pounders, which most effectively kept us clear
of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and throwing
them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud,
pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief." They fight and defend
themselves with their hands, and appear to seize and bite each other's
fingers. Many of the specimens shot in the forest of Borneo have lost one
or more of their fingers or toes; and present scars on the face (especially
on the lips) and bodies from the teeth of their antagonists.
"When wounded he betakes himself to the highest attainable point of the
tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, which at
length deepen into a low roar, not unlike that of a panther. While giving
out the high notes, the Orang thrusts out his lips into a funnel shape; but
in uttering the low notes he holds his mouth wide open, and at the same
time the great throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended."
(_Huxley._)
The name given by the Dyaks to the larger species is "Mias Pappan." There
is, however, a smaller variety, which they designate "Mias Kassu," of which
Dr. Wallace has given an excellent and detailed account. These Mias Kassu
have no tumour-like expansions on the sides of the head; the median crest
is {180}absent from the skull, for the muscular ridges remain some distance
apart; the teeth are very large, especially the canines and the middle
upper incisors. The females, which are smaller than the males, are also
without the cheek-swellings and the prominent crests of the male, and have
smaller canine teeth. This variety, named _Simia morio_ by Sir R. Owen,
bears a close similarity to that found in Sumatra. It has been considered a
distinct species both by Owen and Wallace, but the variation, as the latter
naturalist himself admits, is so very great in just those characters which
have been considered to separate "Mias Kassu" from "Mias Pappan," that it
is highly probable that both are of the same species, but of different
ages. Mr. Beddard found that an Ape exhibited in the Zoological Gardens as
an adult example of _S. morio_ was in reality immature.