50 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part I. 



hand to the other end, and use it in the proper manner as 

 a lever. In the cases just mentioned stones and sticks 

 were employed as implements ; but they are likewise used 

 as wea]3ons. Brehm 25 states, on the authority of the well- 

 known traveller Schinij^er, that in Abyssinia when the 

 baboons belonging to one species ( G. gelada) descend in 

 troops from the mountains to plunder the fields, they 

 sometimes encounter troops of another species (0. hama- 

 dryas), and then a fight ensues. The Geladas roll down 

 great stones, which the Hamadryas try to avoid, and then 

 both species, making a great uproar, rush furiously 

 against each other. Brehm, when accompanying the 

 Duke of Coburg-Gotha, aided in an attack with fire-arms 

 on a troop of baboons in the pass of Mensa in Abyssinia. 

 The baboons in return rolled so many stones down the 

 mountain, some as large as a man's head, that the at- 

 tackers had to beat a hasty retreat ; and the pass was 

 actually for a time closed against the caravan. It de- 

 serves notice that these baboons thus acted in concert. 

 Mr. Wallace 26 on three occasions saw female orangs, ac- 

 companied by their young, " breaking off branches and 

 the great spiny fruit of the Durian-tree, with every ap- 

 ]>earance of rage; causing such a shower of missiles as 

 effectually kept us from approaching too near the tree." 



In the Zoological Gardens a monkey which had weak 

 teeth used to break open nuts with a stone ; and I was 

 assured by the keepers that this animal, after using the 

 stone, hid it in the straw, and would not let any other 

 monkey touch it. Here, then, we have the idea of prop- 

 erty; but this idea is common to every dog with a bone, 

 and to most or all birds with their nests. 



The Duke of Argyll " remarks, that the fashioning of 



25 ' Thierleben,' B. i. s. 79, 82. 



26 'The Malay Archipelago,' vol. i. 1869, p. 87. 

 21 ' Primeval Man,' 1869, pp. 145, 147. 



