268 MENTAL LIFE OF APES AND MONKEYS 



of these animals throwing stones at their pursuers rest upon 

 inaccurate observation; the stones, he thinks, were merely 

 knocked down unintentionally during the flight of these 

 animals up a declivity. Stories of apes throwing down 

 fruit and other objects from trees he thinks are based 

 on the fact that these things are simply dropped when the 

 animals are put to flight. Father Wasmann, who eagerly 

 adopts these conclusions, proceeds to admonish us that 

 the boasted intelligence of apes is entirely illusory. "Had 

 apes themselves/' he tells us "but a trace of intelligence, 

 they would have invented, long ago even in their free state 

 of nature the use of a few simple means of defence, such 

 as branches and stones. But why did they not? The only 

 possible answer is: because they evidently have no intelli- 

 gence. Not the brain alone makes man an intelligent being, 

 but his spiritual soul, and this spiritual soul is wanting in 

 the highest apes as well as in the insects." 



If the failure of apes to use weapons of defence is indicative 

 of lack of intelligence, we may fairly conclude that where 

 weapons are used there is evidence that intelligence exists. 

 Whether or not baboons use sticks and stones in the way 

 alleged, there is good evidence that other members of the 

 ape tribe sometimes employ them as a means of attack. 

 Miss Romanes says regarding her Cebus : " To-day a strange 

 person (a dressmaker) came into the room where he is tied 

 up, and I gave him a walnut that she might see him break 

 it with his hammer. The nut was a bad one, and the woman 

 laughed at his disappointed face. He then became very 

 angry, and threw at her everything he could lay hands 

 on; first the nut, then the hammer, then a coffee-pot which 

 he seized out of the grate, and, lastly all his own shawls. 

 He throws things with great force and precision by holding 

 them in both hands, and extending his long arms well back 



