Tour the National Museum After the First Fifty Years

In a large case 11 feet long, 6 feet wide and 106 feet high, is a group of five orang-outangs, mounted in the highest style of the taxidermist's art, and forming one of the most interesting and attractive objects in the Museum. The group is styled "A fight in the tree-tops." Two old male orangs are engaged in a fierce conflict. One, an ugly monster, is hanging by his long hairy arm to a high branch of a tree, while his hand-like feet grasp a lower branch. In his teeth he has the finger of another male, and is biting through it, while the blood flows from the wound. The other orang-outang, who is also grasping the tree, shows in his countenance every expression of human rage. His cavernous mouth is thrown open as if in the act of howling with anger and pain, and his enormous canine teeth are fully exposed. The rest of the group consists of a female with an infant clinging to her breast, in the act of fleeing from the conflict, while a young orang-outang about two years old is observing the fight from the tree-top.

This group is the work of Mr. Wm. T. Hornaday, the chief taxidermist of the National Museum. It is considered to be worth $1,000. The victorious male is 4 feet 5 inches high, and is the largest specimen known. His face is round and black, with a rudimentary nose, and but for a protruding mouth would be perfectly flat. It measures 13 inches across, its width being due to the spreading flesh of the flat cheek. The arms are longer than those of a human being, the legs shorter, and the abdomen heavier. The body is covered with long reddish brown hair. The other male is an exact counterpart, except that it is smaller in size. The female is about 3 feet 8 inches in height. The baby orang-outang is a curious little creature, and is covered with hair about two inches long. The last of the group, the two-year old, presents no special characteristics.

The interest which naturally attaches to this curious group becomes doubled from the fact that each orang-outang was killed by Mr. Hornaday in the wilds of Borneo, while making collections for Professor Ward of Rochester. Mr. Hornaday gave the following incidents connected with their capture to the editor of the "Washington Post"

"I went to the territory of Sarawak, on the northwest coast of Borneo, and there I heard that the objects of my search were to be found in the valley of the Sodong river. For this place I started, fully equipped to live in the jungle for an indefinite length of time. Accompanied by two servants, I penetrated into the interior. We made inquiries of the natives, and were told that the orang-outangs were to be found only in the fruit season which had then been over some months, and they seemed to have gone into the depths of the forest. So we hunted over the mountains and along the streams, but without success, and finally I came to the conclusion that we would have to give up. At that juncture two natives came down a little tributary of the river and said that they had seen mias, which is the common name for these creatures, and that if I went up to their village and stayed a week or two I might be able to kill three or four. I packed up my things, got in my boat, and went up there. On the way up the river I killed three. When I reached the Dyak village I made myself at home, and devoted myself entirely to hunting orang-outangs. In two months I had killed forty-three, a number unprecedented in so short a time. We found them only in the trees along the river side. The natives said that the orang-outangs were subject to fevers at that season, and came to the river to get the cool breeze.

"We came upon that large fellow - the one biting the other's finger - as he was asleep in a tree. He was lying on a big limb and sleeping, as all of them do, on his back, with his hands and feet clasping the branches. I could only see his knee, and this I fired at. He started up with a deep guttural growl and climbed away slowly. Soon I had a chance for another shot and then another. At the third shot he fell and hung by both hands to a limb. He looked like a giant suspended in the air. I had never seen one so large before. Presently one hand relaxed and a stupor came over his eyes. Then the other hand released its hold and he fell, with a great splash, into the water. He gave a gasp or two and was dead. You should have seen the look he gave us just before he died. I can't describe it.

What are the characteristics of the orang-outangs? "They are solitary in their habits, especially the old ones. Once I saw four together, but that is an unusual thing. Their home is in the trees, and they rarely descend to the ground. They are as helpless on the ground as a man with both legs amputated at the knees, and simply waddle. They cannot stand erect for a moment; it is a physical impossibility. They are not savage towards man, their first instinct being to run away. Even mothers with their young take flight rather than attempt to make a defense. Among themselves they fight frequently, biting each other's hands and feet. One old fellow I killed had three fingers and two toes bitten off and a big piece bitten out of his face. They are very destructive to the quit, and for this reason the natives are glad to have them killed. They could not, however, be said to be numerous."

Can they swim like men? "No, I do not believe they can. All my observation and experience goes to prove that they cannot make a single stroke in the water, but sink as helpless as lead."

Can they be tamed? "I caught a young one unhurt and kept it for quite a while as a pet. It was tame, and its passions and emotions were exactly like a child just before it is able to talk."

"In the Malayan language the word 'orang' means man, and 'utan' means a wild jungle or forest. Now, then, you can readily see that orangutan means a jungle-man, or, literally, a wild man. Orang-utan is the proper way of spelling the name. All other methods are corruptions."

For more information on the Department of Mammals, see

Return to start of the Tour the National Museum in 1886