for they immediately began making a quantity of pegs of the same kind, while I
looked on with great interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such a
lofty tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of which at a good
height would certainly cause their death. When about two dozen pegs were
made, one of them began cutting some very long and slender bamboo from
another clump, and also prepared some cord from the bark of a small tree. They
now drove in a peg very firmly at about three feet from the ground, and bringing
one of the long bamboos, stood it upright close to the tree, and bound it firmly to
the two first pegs, by means of the bark cord and small notches near the head of
each peg. One of the Dyaks now stood on the first peg and drove in a third,
about level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo in the same way, and then
mounted another step, standing on one foot, and holding by the bamboo at the
peg immediately above him, while he drove in the next one. In this manner he
ascended about twenty feet; when the upright bamboo was becoming thin,
another was handed up by his companion, and this was joined by tying both
bamboos to three or four of the pegs. When this was also nearly ended, a third
was added, and shortly after, the lowest branches of the tree were reached, along
which the young Dyak scrambled, and soon sent the Mias tumbling down
headlong. I was exceedingly struck by the ingenuity of this mode of climbing,
and the admirable manner in which the peculiar properties of the bamboo were
made available. The ladder itself was perfectly safe, since if any one peg were
loose or faulty, and gave way, the strain would be thrown on several others
above and below it. I now understood the use of the line of bamboo pegs sticking
in trees, which I had often seen, and wondered for what purpose they could have
been put there. This animal was almost identical in size and appearance with the
one I had obtained at Semabang, and was the only other male specimen of the
Simia morio which I obtained. It is now in the Derby Museum.
I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of different ages, all
of which I preserved. One of the females, with several young ones, was feeding
on a Durian tree with unripe fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking
off branches and the great spiny fruits with every appearance of rage, causing
such a shower of missiles as effectually kept us from approaching too near the
tree. This habit of throwing down branches when irritated has been doubted, but
I have, as here narrated, observed it myself on at least three separate occasions.
It was however always the female Mias who behaved in this way, and it may be
that the male, trusting more to his great strength and his powerful canine teeth, is
not afraid of any other animal, and does not want to drive them away, while the
parental instinct of the female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself