UP A TREE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2017, 16 June 1885, Page 2

UP A TREE.

There are three distinct races of men who live in trees. These are Indians in South America, who inhabit the borders of the Orinoco, Tucuya, and Madeira ' rivers; the Veddas of Ceylon, and the Krao-Momek of Laos, a dependency of : Siam. Krao-Moniek means man-monkey; Laos is a part of the world which has.: never been thoroughly explored, and but comparatively little is known about it'.'by < geographers a?id scientists. It contains from 800 to 1,000 square' miles, and lies between the fifteenth and twentieth' •■ degrees of north latitude,' north of Siam,' east of theMeham-Khong, west of Annam.' and about 400 miles south-west of Tonquin. The reason why. Laos has.not been thoroughly explored is'becausV'almoßteveryone who has -attempted it has died of malarial fever. That part of the country in _ which the Krao live is very swampy, is inhabited only by the men who live in trees, and by elephants and snakes.' The people live in trees to escapethesnakes and the wet ground, ' They weave the branches of two trees togtther, and built huts therein, In climbing trees they use their toes as a monkey does. They do not grasp the trees with their legs'as wedo. They live'on driedfish, wild rice, and the rind of a green cocoanut. Their' only weapon ig.a club.''-.'../; • •:-" •".