Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER VII

  A SPIRITED BATTLE WITH ORANG-OUTANGS

  The civilized people of Simujan were not stirring when the party camefrom their chambers. Felipe had steam up at half-past five, for thecaptain intended to begin the ascent of the river; but he did not careto leave without bidding adieu to the kindly agent. But they got underway at his order, and ran up the river for a morning airing. The boathad not gone more than a mile when the young men discovered a sampancontaining two Malays paddling with all their might for the shore.

  They had no guns, and could not shoot their game, whatever it was; buteach of them had a _biliong_. This was the implement Achang had boughtin Sarawak. It looked something like a pickaxe with only one arm, theend of which was fashioned like a mortising chisel, and was used as anaxe.

  The edge of the chisel portion was parallel to the handle; but Achangexplained that the Dyaks had another kind of biliong, with the cuttingpart at right angles with the handle, and this was used as an adze.While Lane, the carpenter, was ridiculing the tool, the Malays on shoremoved to a tree in sight of the steamer, which had stopped her screwclose to the sampan.

  "They are going to cut down a tree with the biliongs," said Achang."Sometimes do that to get the game."

  "They couldn't cut down a tree a foot through with those things in aweek!" exclaimed Lane.

  "So quick as you could cut it down," insisted the Bornean stoutly.

  "Dry up, now, and let us see the Malays work with the thing," interposedthe captain.

  "Lane, you shall have a trial with a Dyak or a Malay, and I will give aprize of three dollars to the one that fells the tree first," saidLouis.

  "I should like to try that with any Dyak or Malay," replied Lanegood-naturedly; and he was a stout Down-Easter, who had been a logger inthe woods before he was a carpenter or a seaman.

  "There are two animals in that tree where they are at work," criedMorris, as he pointed to the scene of operations. "One of them is a bigone, and the other is a little one," he added, when he obtained a betterview of the game the Malays were trying to obtain. "What are they,Achang?"

  "Mias! Mias!" exclaimed the native, as a movement of the boat ahead gavehim a full view of the creatures. "One is a big one, and the other isher baby."

  "But what are the Malays doing now?" asked Louis.

  "Make a stage to stand on," replied Achang.

  "What do they want of a stage?" demanded Lane contemptuously.

  "You will see if you wait," added the captain.

  They were picking up poles where they could find them, and cuttingsaplings, which they dropped with a single blow of the biliong. In a fewminutes they had constructed a rude framework on crotched sticks, driveninto the soft ground, with a platform of poles on the top. On this oneof the two men mounted with his biliong, with which he began his workwith a blow at the tree about four feet above the level of the ground.The other Malay brought from the sampan a couple of spears, a paronglatok, and a bundle of ropes and rattans.

  "Do they use the sumpitan in Borneo now, Achang?" asked Louis.

  "Not Dyaks, Mr. Belgrave; Kyans use it; shoot poison arrows; sure death;very bad."

  The sumpitan is a kind of blow-gun, like the "bean-blower" formerly usedby American boys, which was a tin pipe, or the "pea-shooter," an Englishplaything. It was used, it is said, by the Dyaks in former times; butrecent travellers do not mention it as used by them. It is about eightfeet long, and less than an inch in diameter, made of very hard wood,skilfully and accurately bored, and smoothed inside.

  The parong latok, already described, is a heavy sword. It has a head,sometimes carved as an ornament, so that it cannot slip from the hand.At about one-third of its length from this head, it bends at an abruptangle of about thirty-five degrees, and it makes a very ugly-lookingweapon.

  "I suppose you all know that a mias is an orang-outang," said Louis. "Nodoubt the weapons carried up to the tree are to be used in killing thegame when the tree comes down. We could easily bring down both; but wewon't fire at them, for I think we are all curious to see how the Malayswill manage the affair. The chopper has already made a big cut in thetree, and I doubt if Lane could have done the work any quicker."

  The carpenter did not say anything, but no doubt he was greatlysurprised at the rapid progress the native made with the biliong. He hadcut the tree more than half-way through the trunk; and it was evidentthat he intended it should fall towards the river, for the second Malaywas clearing away the ground on that side so that they might have a fairfield for the fight that was to ensue. The chopper attacked the otherside of the tree, and seemed to deal his blows with even more vigor thanbefore.

  The old orang kept up a constant growling. She had a nest just above thelimb where she sat, which was quite green, indicating that it had beenrecently built. It was composed of the branches of the tree small enoughto be easily broken off by the "jungle man." They were simply placed ina heap on the limb, with no particular shaping of the resting-place.

  "She makes a new nest when the branches of the old one get dry; she likea soft bed," said Achang. "But the tree will come down now; big fight,they kill her."

  He had hardly spoken these words before the tree suddenly toppled over,and fell upon the ground with a heavy crash. The orangs seemed to haveno idea of what was going on at the foot of the tree, and they werepitched out. The chopper seized one of the spears, and rushed after theold one. The tree prevented the party on board the yacht from seeing theexpected battle; and with their rifles in their hands, the "Big Four"sprang ashore, and secured a favorable position. The crew followed them,though the engineer remained at his post.

  The first Malay, who had done the chopping, had confronted the orang,and they stood facing each other. Suddenly the animal made a springtowards her enemy, and was received on the point of his spear. The orangwas wounded, but this only increased her wrath, and she made a furiousonslaught upon the man; but the spear was too much for her, and she waswounded again.

  The orang opened her mouth, and showed a terrible double row of teethflanked by four long tusks. They were enough to intimidate oneunaccustomed to the creature's appearance. She made repeated attempts toreach her enemy; but the spear, very adroitly handled, foiled her everytime, and gave her a new wound. This sparring, as it were, was kept upfor some time, and the Americans wondered that the Malay did not drivehis weapon to the heart of the infuriated animal. Doubtless he wouldhave done so if he could; but the orang had hands as well as feet, andshe grasped the spear every time it punctured her skin, and seemed toprevent it from inflicting a fatal wound.

  It was a mystery to the observers how the Malay contrived to detach hisweapon from the grasp of the orang, though he did so every time. But atlast the brute seemed to change her tactics, or she got a better hold ofthe spear; for she suddenly snapped the weapon into two pieces as thoughit had been a pipe-stem. Deprived of his arm, the Malay ran a few rods.The orang is very clumsy on its feet, and she could not catch him. Theman only went a few rods to the place where the parong latok had beenplaced, and with this weapon he returned to the attack.

  The skirmishing with this weapon continued for some time longer, and thebeast was wounded every time she attempted to get hold of her opponent.In the meantime the other Malay had not been idle. He used no deadlyweapons, but substituted for them a long cord he had brought from thesampan. He made a slip-noose in one end of it, and was trying to catchthe young one. It might have run away if it had been so disposed, but itseemed to be determined to stay by its mother.

  "He wants you, or needs your skill with the lasso, Captain Scott," saidMorris, recalling the feats with the lasso of the commander.

  "He is doing very well, and he handles the line well," replied Scott."Now he has him!" he exclaimed, as the Malay passed the cord over thehead of the young orang, and hauled it taut around his neck.

  With the line he dragged the orang to a sapling near the fallen tree,and, with other lines he had left there, tied his hands and feettogether, and fastened
him to the small tree.

  He had hardly secured his victim before a yell from the first hunterstartled him, and he ran with his lasso and a spear to his assistance.The old one, badly wounded by the sharp weapon of her enemy, hadsuddenly dropped upon all fours, and crawled to the man; seizing him byhis legs, she set her villanous teeth into the calf of one of them. Itlooked as though the human was to be the victim of the brute.

  The Malay, howling with the sharp pain, slashed away with all his mightat the hind quarters of the orang; but she did not relax her grip on hisleg. His companion arrived at the scene of the conflict. He dropped hislasso then, and began to use his parong latok. After he saw that blowswith the weapon accomplished nothing, he plunged the blade into the bodyof the brute several times in quick succession. These stabs ended thebattle. The orang rolled over, and then did not move again.

  Both of the human combatants then walked down to the Blanchita, one ofthem limping badly. They showed their wounds, and through Achang askedto be "doctored." Pitts had some skill as a leach, and themedicine-chest was in his care. He laid out the patient with the woundedleg, washed the wound, and then applied some sticking-plaster to thelacerated member, after he had restored the parts to their naturalposition. Then he bandaged the leg quite skilfully, so as to keep allthe parts in place. The hands of the other were covered withsticking-plaster and bandaged.

  With the assistance of the seamen, the carcass of the old orang wasdragged down to the river, and put in the sampan of the Malays. Theyoung one was as ugly as sin itself, and tried to get at the men to bitethem. Finally Clingman stuffed a piece of rope into his mouth, and tiedit around his head so tight that he could not shut his mouth. He wasmad, but he could not bite. He was put into the sampan, and made fastthere.

  The yacht got under way again, and with the Malay sampan in tow, headeddown the river. The tide was running out at a mill-stream pace, for thewater in the stream had risen far beyond its usual level. Achang shookhis head as he looked at the rapid outward flow of the water; but thesteamer went at railroad speed, and the boys enjoyed it hugely.

  "What is the matter, Achang?" asked the captain, as he observed theuneasy movements of the Bornean as the yacht approached the junctionwith the Sadong.

  "Have bore soon; better go no farther," replied the native. "Upset allboats and sampans."

  Captain Scott ordered the helmsman to go to the shore, and there thepainter of the Malay sampan was cast off, and her men got to the land.

  "There it goes up the Sadong!" cried Achang, as he pointed to the broadstream.

  A wave, estimated to be about ten feet high, fringing, curling, andlashed into foam, and roaring in its wrath, rolled up the river. Itstruck two small sampans, upset them, and spilled the men in them intothe angry, boiling waters. With less fury it rolled up the Simujan, andScott rushed to the wheel himself. He "faced the music," and headed theyacht into the wave. She rose some feet in the air at the bow, andpassed over it. She was too far from the banks to be thrown ashore, andno harm was done.

  These bores are not uncommon on the Sadong; and they were not a newthing to those on board of the Blanchita, for they had seen one in theHoogly at Calcutta; but even Scott, who was a bold navigator, would nothave cared to be in the river when a wave ten feet high swept on hiscraft.