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The Soul of the Ape

Marais se voetnote:

Means and Methods of Research: 1 This attitude is referred to at length in the chapter dealing with sexual abnormality; Habits Acquired in Different Environments: 1 The reverse was not proved; 2 In captivity they easily acquire the habit of eating cooked meat, as also they frequently acquire an inordinate craving for tobacco and alcohol; Phyletic and Individual Memory: 1 I do not think it is necessary to enter into an abstract psychological analysis. References to behaviour will constantly be made which will make the conception clearer than attempted definition can at this stage; 2 The finch is a seed-eater, but it feeds its young on fish or grubs exclusively; 3 It is noteworthy that the baboon showed a deep and lasting devotion to its human parent-by-adoption. Even after a separation of three years it immediately recognised her with the utmost joy and affection. The otter became quite indifferent to its foster-parent and ‘relatives’ the moment it could fend for itself; 4 All wild ruminants in the district where this plant grows avoid it instinctively, but domestic animals never learn its danger either by direct individual experience or through heredity and large numbers of cattle, sheep and goats are killed annually. Even the native cattle, which have probably had centuries of experience, eat it just as readily as the newly imported animals. Those that recover are often repeatedly poisoned by the plant and dogs are sometimes also killed through eating the ripe fruit; The Selective Cause: 1 It is no doubt a conception of this truth which colours the thread of pessimism running through all recorded human thought; the conviction that, whatever the circumstances may be, the evil in existence must necessarily outweigh the good - as the sparks fly upward; Addiction and Depression: 1 As a general rule, the female is less susceptible than the male - that is to say, it takes longer experience to establish an absolute and enduring craving for alcohol; 2 Paradise Lost, I, 496-500; 3 All these signs are, of course, absent in a village where beer has been made and is being drunk; Submerged Instinctive Attributes in Man: 1 Unless, of course, it is accepted as proved that subconscious mental activity, under certain conditions, possesses the power of direct non-sensorial contacts with other minds embodied or disembodied, or as ‘clairvoyant,’ ‘clairaudient,’ etc.; Hypnotic Hyperaesthesia: 1 This experiment was arranged before it was discovered that magnetism had no share in the sensation experienced by the hypnotised girl; Divergence from Type: 1 A not uncommon variant. It is beyond doubt a reversion; 2 Crossing under natural conditions is unsuccessful if care is not taken to exclude extreme variants. Extreme forms have a tendency to separate from the wild birds; 3 The ‘gorilla’ ridge and the orbital ridges are of course invariably correlated, as one would anticipate from their structural connection; 4 The individual development of the chimpanzee is analogous. The foetus is much more human-like than the adult. Here there is reason for believing that this anthropoid also represents a ‘degenerate’ type - that is to say, it is descended from ancestors which were more human-like than the adult chimpanzees. As in the chacma, the resemblance persists in the early post-natal stage of development, when it is also very noticeable in behaviour. The chimpanzee baby cries so like a human baby that the sounds are easily mistakable. It ‘pulls faces’ in the same way and similarly jerks its arms and legs spasmodically. At a little later stage of development it shows acute distress by the human method of throwing itself on the ground, aimlessly kicking with its legs and moving its arms about. The eyes are tight shut, the face is distorted and its wailing cries are very like those of a human child at a lower stage of individual development; 5 In the African anthropoid, as I have suggested, it is even now difficult to draw hard-and-fast classifying lines. I had an opportunity of examining a female called Johanna, whose extraordinary intelligence surprised

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even those well acquainted with the mentality of the big apes. She was described as a gorilla, but she certainly had more chimpanzee than gorilla characteristics. These were, however, so evenly divided that it was impossible on a superficial examination to say on which side the balance lay; Disturbances of the Sexual Sense: 1 High altruism also appears in battles in defence of the troop. Dogs and even leopards are sometimes attacked by the big males with reckless courage; 2 It seems hardly necessary to point out that this is to the naturalist a startling abnormality. The inflexible rule in nature is that sexual intercourse ceases as soon as conception has taken place. Not that the female purposely avoids the male, but she cannot excite his sexual sense. The domestic animals afford the only exceptions among the lower animals; 3 There were at the time several cases of human goitre in the vicinity.

Aantekeninge deur die Redakteur:

The Soul of the Ape het eers 33 jaar ná Marais se dood in druk verskyn (in 1969, by Human & Rousseau). Die boek het 'n voorwoord van meer as 50 bladsye deur Robert Ardrey, wat weens gebrek aan ruimte nie hier opgeneem word nie. Ardrey is baie geesdriftig, en hy maak nogal 'n groot ophef van die ontdekking van Marais se lank verlore meesterstuk. In werklikheid is dié teks hoogs waarskynlik nie die volledige Soul of the Ape soos Marais dit wou voltooi nie. Die hele verhaal word in Die Groot Verlange vertel en kom kortliks op die volgende neer: Marais het waarskynlik in 1916, kort voor die einde van sy Waterbergse tydperk, by sy broer Charles op Boshof (waar hy geneeskundig behandel is) aan dié beoogde magnum opus begin skryf. Nadat hy die Waterberg vroeg in 1917 vir goed verlaat het, het hy in Pretoria verder daaraan gewerk, en toe weer gedurende 'n verblyf op 'n plaas op die Springbokvlakte. As advokaat by die Pretoriase Balie sit hy die werk voort en bespreek dit met 'n hele aantal vriende, ook herhaaldelik met sy seun. Vermoedelik vroeg in 1919 gee hy vir sy seun 'n manuskrip. Dit lyk egter asof Marais gedeeltes van die manuskrip waaraan hy nog wou werk, of waarmee die seun nie kon saamstem nie, voorlopig teruggehou het - soos blyk uit die feit dat sowel die seun as Marais se ou vriend advokaat Charles te Water in onderhoude met my verwys het na temas uit The Soul of the Ape wat nie in die ekstante vorm van die werk verskyn nie. Nadat Marais se seun die manuskrip vir sy pa oorgetik het, gee hy dit aan hom, maar hou 'n deurslag. Hierdie deurslag was The Soul of the Ape soos ons dit vandag ken. Marais het wel nog 'n hele rukkie aan die manuskrip gewerk en dit deur 'n jong vriendin laat oortik - moontlik twee keer - maar hy het dit nooit voltooi nie. Later, in die chaos van sy ontwrigtende ondervindings op Heidelberg, het die manuskrip verlore geraak. Dit lyk selfs asof Marais se onvermoë om die boek te voltooi, vir hom so 'n bittere teleurstelling was dat hy die blote bestaan daarvan vergeet het, soos hy meermale met onaangename herinneringe (selfs mense, moontlik selfs party van sy susters) kon doen. In 1921 verskyn vertaalde gedeeltes van The Soul of the Ape (sonder verwysing daarna) as artikels in Die Banier, bylaag tot Die Brandwag (later gebundel in Natuurkundige en Wetenskaplike Studies, p. 173). In 1928 neem hy as 't ware formeel van die Engelse werk afskeid deur 'n artikelreeks met die titel ‘Die Siel van die Aap’ (maar met 'n heeltemal ander inhoud as The Soul of the Ape) in Die Huisgenoot te laat verskyn. (p. 214 e.v. van hierdie versameling).