36 THE MONKEY TRIBE 



human prototype. Even if the most generous consideration 

 be extended to the monkey, it cannot be admitted that 

 it possesses a true hand it is nothing better than a mis- 

 chievous, artful, thieving paw. The human hand is not 

 only a marvel of mechanism, but it possesses an intellectual 

 power, an individuality, in close association with the active 

 brain and the glorious soul of its human owner. 



Old-time travellers brought home wonderful accounts 

 of 'men with long tails and covered with yellowish hair 



navigating the 

 ocean in boats 

 and bartering par- 

 rots in exchange 

 for iron/ Such 

 stories nowadays 

 would not obtain 

 credence outside a 

 nursery. 



It was an idea, 

 not always re- 

 stricted to savages, 

 that monkeys are 

 capable of speech, 

 but refrain from 

 its expression lest 

 they should be 

 compelled to 

 labour. Professor 

 FOOT AND HAND OF A MONKEY. Garner in recent 



years has attempted 



to learn the speech of monkeys. Inclosing himself in a 

 cage in the heart of an African forest, by means of the 

 phonograph he took careful records of the sounds emitted 

 by the animals around him. In common with almost all 

 animals, monkeys give vent to varying cries to express 

 pleasure, pain, and other emotions ; but the reduction of 

 monkey sounds into any orderly system of recognisable 

 speech must be written down as a complete failure. 



Linnaeus imagined that it was possible to find a homo 

 troglodytes (literally ' a man dweller in the caves ') only a 



