THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 117 



are largely controlled by reason, the simpler ones, such as 

 this of building a platform, might readily pass into a volun- 

 tary and conscious act. The orang is known to cover itself 

 at night with the leaves of the Pandanus; and Brehm states 

 that one of his baboons used to protect itself from the heat 

 of the sun by throwing a straw-mat over its head. In these 

 several habits we probably see the first steps toward some 

 of the simpler arts, such as rude architecture and dress, as 

 they arose among the early progenitors of man. 



Abstraction, General Conceptions, Self -consciousness, Mental 

 Individuality. — It would be very difficult for any one with 

 even much more knowledge than I possess, to determine 

 how far animals exhibit any traces of these high mental 

 powers. This difficulty arises from the impossibility of 

 judging what passes through the mind of an animal; and 

 again, the fact that writers diifer to a great extent in the 

 meaning which they attribute to the above terms causes a 

 further difficulty. If one may judge from various articles 

 which have been published lately, the greatest stress seems 

 to be laid on the supposed entire absence in animals of the 

 power of abstraction, or of forming general concepts. But 

 when a dog sees another dog at a distance, it is often clear 

 that he perceives that it is a dog in the abstract; for when 

 he gets nearer his whole manner suddenly changes, if the 

 other dog be a friend. A recent writer remarks, that in all 

 such cases it is a pure assumption to assert that the mental 

 act is not essentially of the same nature in the animal as in 

 man. If either refers what he perceives with his senses 

 to a mental concept then so do both." When I say to my 

 terrier, in an eager voice (and I have made the trial many 

 times), "Hi, hi, where is it?" she at once takes it as a sign 

 that something is to be hunted, and generally first looks 

 quickly all around, and then rushes into the nearest thicket, 

 to scent for any game, but finding nothing, she looks up into 



■" Mr. Hookham, in a letter to Prof. Max MiiUer, in the "Birmingham 

 News," May, 18T3. 



