The Missing Link.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3064, 26 November 1888, Page 3

The Missing Link.

, Count D'Abbans, the French Consul General, writes to tho Wellington Press:—There" is a curious tribe living in tha Malay Peninsula. Their number is rapidly deoreasing, but at tho present date I think two or threo thousdud of them aro estimated to exist, according to tho census in the y Straits Settlement. Tho Malays call these people the "Oraug-Outan," literally " men of the woods," They are quite different from the kind of monkey which are improperly named " Orang-Outung." The word "outang," in Malay language, means " « debtor." The savage pooplo called ■!' OrangOutan" are rather hairy, as thoy aro nearly nude. I saw many of them,men and women, without any dress at all, Some have a bit of bark or old clothes given to them by Malay or wbitcmen. For dwellings thoy adopt' some trees in the bush, make soiuo rough

steps on the trunk, and arrange» sort of floor out with branches and r ' creepers out of the reach of tigers and ■ other ferocious beasts, Their language is hardly articulatod,and amounts to less than a hundred sounds. They cannot count up to more than four or five, If you inquire, of course by signs, from thorn how many children they have, in case they have more than four they answer plenty, by great demonstrations of their hands. Their ' food .consists mainly of roots, fruits, fish, birds', or snakes'eggs, generally eaten raw. But thoy know the use of fire. With a box of vestas you could obtain anything you wish from them. The only Malay word they know generally is "Api" [fire], The tribe of the " Orang-Outan" is certainly the link which separates tho genus 'man' lrom the genus 'monkey,' These wild people sometimes dwell in canoes made from bark or from a hollow trunk. Then they are calkl " Orang-Lakut" or " men of water." Tboy.are born, tlioy live, and thoy die in their canoes, which could not lire at sen, You meet them in the rivors, and raroly in the bights of tho • Peninsula, The" Orang-Outau" and '! Lakut" tiro brunches of tho sumo family, tho latter looking rather■ less wild, owing to the f'ttot that their wandering life brings them more into contact with tho Malays and white ' people. Their food is exclusively fish and shells,' No doubt these fellowcreatures of ours are the aboriuigals of tbc uoutboiTi part of Asia, hiving been driven away by tho invading Tartars and others, I have been told that a few of them exist now at Sumatra, but 1 never met any of them there, Tho Negritos of Mindanao Island, one of the Fhillipines, aro of the same Bpecies; maybe thoy form a link of theohain a little nearer to the civilised man, very little further removed from'the monkey than the Orang-Outan. I met also in Borneo, not fur from Brunei, aborigiuies, rather hairy, undressed, and treated with the utmost disgust . by the wild and uncivilised Dayaks, who wear bolts and large bats made of dried leaves, They dwell on trees like their brothers at Malacca, and are disappearing in the same way. The Sultan of Borneo speaking with me about them said: "These wild fellows generally count up to live; but if I order them to bring mo as a tribute five rattan baskets, thoy cannot then count oven up to two." 'That shows that the last representatives of tup primitive men are not absolutely devoid of cunning,

The Oldest Toad in Existence'

Amelia B, Edwards sends to an exchange the following extract from a letter from Mr T, L, Patterson, of Greenock;—"l suppose you have often heard oi toads being found in pieces of rock, coal, &c, when broken open by the workmen's piok, I have to-day just seen one taken out of a bed of clay on Tuesday last (the 18th inat.), in a new railway outting at present being made hero, It is alive, but wry inactive and somi-torpid, It eeems to havo no bones it is so limp; and its logs bend any way. It has two beautiful eyos, but does not seem to see. Its mouth is sealed up, but it seems to breatho very slightly through its nostrils, though how it breathed embedded in day it is hard to say, If it is 20,000 to 30,000 year since tho glacial period when tho clay was deposited, this toad goes along way back into hoary antiquity, arid was probably contemporaneous with tho progonitors of Menes himself. But the toad lives still.".

The following notice of motion has beon tabled by Cr Carman for tho noxt meeting of tho Borough Council:—That it is desiroblo to place liofoto the burgeesoß a proposal to raiso tho sum of thousand pounds, for the purpose of paying off and consolidating tho existing loans-library and gas workspaying balanco on steam fire engine, and constructing tho remaining streets of the Borough.