Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/491

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NOTES ON ASIATIC MUSEUMS
485

ourang would. I am sure, be cordially envied by the best western museums, even though the mounting is not quite up to the present standard. I recall particularly one male ourang with a splendid head, and of extraordinary size. Among the zoological rarities are the relics of a very young dugong. This had been brought to the museum living and the preparations are accompanied by sketches of the living animal. In invertebrate material there is the usual range of Crustacea, corals and sponges, most of them carefully determined. The ethnological cabinet (Malayan) is important, as one might expect, and its arrangement is well carried out. There are models of houses, some with inao suspended about them, suggesting primitive Japanese buildings, even with the curious "frog-thigh beams" crossing at the ridge pole, as in the most primitive Shinto temples, and with these are many suggestions of relationship with Japan. Of Dyak objects there are rich gatherings, including a collection of krisses, costumes, ornaments, etc. There are a number of the sharply-perforated carvings still used to decorate Urala ceremonial feasts, groups of objects used in marriage ceremonies, collections illustrating local basket-making, an art in which the Malayans are especially skillful. There are also cases of native cloths, coins and ornaments of gold and silver, the latter not as good in quality as one might reasonably expect. In the artistic treatment of many of these objects there are obvious affinities with the South Seas. Much of the success of the present museum has been due to the labors during the past dozen years of the director. Dr. E. Hanitsch, whose picture, as he stands in front of his bungalow, near

Fig. 2. Singapore. Bungalow of the Museum-Director. Dr. Hanitsch.