CHIMPANZEES AND ORANG-UTANS. 285 



which I naturally understood to mean that she was thirsty and which 

 proved to be the case. I think this showed fairly conclusively that 

 there was a glimmering idea of the connection of the word with 

 the object and with her desire. 



By getting her to stick out her tongue and then by holding the 

 tip of it up against her teeth and at the same time forcing her to 

 breathe through her mouth I finally got her to make the sound Th. 

 This was preliminary to teaching the words : the, this, that. 



All this was encouraging I will admit but then — " I never nursed 

 a dear gazelle . . . ," etc. ; the poor little animal died four or five 

 months after this first tiny inkling of language. I have tried per- 

 sistently for five years to teach my surviving chimpanzee pupil to 

 say " mama " ; she says it, but very poorly. I think I must honestly 

 say it is a failure. Again and again I have tried by the same 

 method that I used with the orang-utan to teach her to say cup, but 

 to no avail. On the whole I should say that the orang holds out 

 more promise as a conversationalist than does the chimpanzee ; it 

 is more patient, less excitable, and seems to take instruction more 

 kindly. 



As to a comprehension of the connection of spoken words with 

 objects and actions both the orang-utan and chimpanzee, I think, 

 exceed any of our domestic animals ; both of my anthropoids have 

 been able to understand what is said to them, more intelligently 

 than any professionally trained animals I have ever seen. In their 

 education the enticement of food has never been used as an incen- 

 tive to actions, and praise and petting have been the only rewards. 

 In other words my object has been to endeavor to make them show 

 signs of thought rather than a perfunctory performance of tricks. 

 The very hardest thing that I have had to contend with is inatten- 

 tion and lack of persistence. The slightest sound is enough to 

 divert their minds entirely unless they are deeply interested. 



Both the chimpanzee and the orang-utan possess a retentive 

 memory for objects in connection with actions, in other words, for 

 the association of ideas ; they knew precisely the right key for every 

 lock and padlock in their apartments and could pick them out of a 

 bunch of ten or twelve other keys and could unfasten the lock. It 

 was the shape and size of the key that they remembered, I am con- 



