ded man, and Nigel accompanied the professor along
the banks of the stream on which the village stood. Having merely gone
out for a stroll they carried no weapons except walking-sticks,
intending to go only a short distance. Interesting talk, however, on the
character and habits of various animals, made them forget time until the
diminution of daylight warned them to turn. They were about to do so
when they observed, seated in an open place near the stream, the largest
orang they had yet seen. It was feeding on succulent shoots by the
water-side: a fact which surprised the professor, for his inquiries and
experience had hitherto taught him that orangs never eat such food
except when starving. The fat and vigorous condition in which this
animal was forbade the idea of starvation. Besides, it had brought a
Durian fruit to the banks of the stream and thrown it down, so that
either taste or eccentricity must have induced it to prefer the shoots.
Perhaps its digestion was out of order and it required a tonic.

Anyhow, it continued to devour a good many young shoots while our
travellers were peeping at it in mute surprise through the bushes. That
they had approached so near without being observed was due to the fact
that a brawling rapid flowed just there, and the mias was on the other
side of the stream. By mutual consent the men crouched to watch its
proceedings. They were not a little concerned, however, when the brute
seized an overhanging bough, and, with what we may style sluggish
agility, swung itself clumsily but lightly to their side of the stream.
It picked up the Durian which lay there and began to devour it. Biting
off some of the strong spikes with which that charming fruit is covered,
it made a small hole in it, and then with its powerful fingers tore off
the thick rind and began to enjoy a feast.

Now, with monkeys, no less than with men, there is many a slip 'twixt
the cup and the lip, for the mias had just begun its meal, or, rather,
its dessert, when a crocodile, which the professor had not observed and
Nigel had mistaken for a log, suddenly opened its jaws and seized the
big monkey's leg. The scene that ensued baffles description! Grasping
the crocodile with its other three hands by nose, throat, and eyes, the
mias almost performed the American operation of gouging--digging its
powerful thumbs and fingers into every crevice and tearing open its
assailant's jaws. The crocodile, taken apparently by surprise,