Annual report on Sarawak.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sarawak. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    188/230 (page 118)
    Science and Arts. The Museum duriny 1950. The Sarawak Museum was established by the second Rajah Brooke in 188G. f nder a series of energetic curators it lias grown into a fine mixed museum, having the best collection of Dayak art and crafts to be found anywhere. It is the only museum in the four Borneo territories. It is a great attraction for tourists, being situated in beautiful grounds in the centre of Ivuching, and the local people, too, have visited it frequently. Of the 70,000 visitors during 1950 about a quarter were llayaks, a third Malays, a third Chinese and the rest European and other races. School children accompanied by their teachers are coming in increasing numbers. The two stuffed Orang-utans, the snakes, the big whale skeleton and the human heads interest the young, while the photographs of Kuching in the past and the stamp collection attract the older visitors. Unfortunately there are no exhibits of Clouded Leopards, Honey Bears and Rhinoceros. Specimens of the first two have been obtained but await stuffing; Rhinoceros were plentiful in the early decades of this century, but owing to their value as an aphrodisiac to the Chinese, they have been hunted nearly to extinction. It is doubtful whether there were any in Sarawak when a survey was made in 1947, but since then a few have moved in from eastern Borneo, and it is hoped that, as they are now protected by a Game Ordinance, they will soon become established. Some Chicken. The prize piece in the live animals section in the museum grounds died in 1950. It was a chick that survived several attacks from a King Cobra, or Hamadryad (Naia hannah) also an inhabitant of the menagerie. The King Cobra is rightly regarded as the most vicious and deadly snake in the world. The museum possessed a specimen of six feet long, which was violently aggressive and refused all food other than live snakes. These are not always to be found in Kuching town¬ ship, so in despair its keepers bought a newly hatched chick