THE ERA OF HELPLESSNESS 65 



Hundreds or thousands of generations must have 

 passed before that status was reached! 



This impartial discussion of the hypothesis and 

 assumption, stated on page 47, shows both to be 

 without foundation in either fact or reason, and utterly 

 untenable} 



on one of the branches of a tree, an adult female gibbon with 

 her baby. She noiselessly touched her husband's arm and 

 pointed to these two. Quickly he aimed his rifle and fired, and 

 the wounded female, still holding her baby, dropped to the ground 

 near the trunk of the tree. Immediately thereafter they saw a 

 large number of gibbons of various ages scamper away from 

 that part of the forest and disappear. Then they set to work 

 to capture the wounded female, who fought furiously. While 

 they were thus occupied, their attention was attracted by a noise 

 much like the approach of a crowd of people, and on looking 

 in the direction they beheld a troop of about fifteen full-grown 

 gibbons, all males, making directly toward them with obviously 

 hostile intent. The rifle being unloaded, they had no desire 

 to encounter these angry brutes, and fled, observing from the 

 distance that the troop proceeded no further than the wounded 

 female and her young, which they lifted up tenderly and carried 

 away. Apparently these males had simply taken their females 

 and young to a place of safety and then returned to rescue their 

 wounded. 



The same traveler reports that it is an inspiring sensation to 

 hear the sound of the long-drawn-out musical laughter with 

 which the gibbons salute the dawn of daylight; that it entirely 

 relieves the sense of extreme isolation which civilized people 

 sometimes feel when sojourning during lengthy periods in the 

 depth of the aboriginal forest. 



1 If it be contended that there exists an interdependence 

 between two feet and hands on the one side, and the possession 

 of a high degree of intelligence on the other, then the reply is, 

 firstly, that this phase of the argument will be part of the sub- 

 ject-matter of the next chapter; secondly, that there cannot be 

 a direct dependence of one on the other, but only an interde- 

 pendence between intelligence and the elevation above ground 

 of the organs of sight, hearing, smell, and touch, and that the 

 extent of this elevation is dependent on the upright attitude. 



The scope of these sense organs, except touch, on account of 

 the nature of space, increases as the squares of their elevations 

 above the ground. But since the impediments to the passage of 

 light and sound increase very rapidly the nearer the surface of 



