PSYCHOLOGY 279 



calls " alarm attack," and he has frequently observed its exciting 

 effect upon other apes when reproduced. A sound ejaculated 

 after punishment accompanied with the corresponding attitude 

 should betoken submission, a word for " danger," also a warning 

 signal sounded something like ii-tsch-g-k, another to announce 

 the approach of any one like (guttural) ch-i ! The total resources 

 of the language of the common capuchin ape amount to some 

 nine words or sounds which according to their intonation have 

 each some two or three meanings. The language of the white- 

 faced capuchin has only three sounds (for food, alarm and 

 friendship), that of the rhesus three also, for food, alarm and 

 anger. 



Essentially the sounds consist of vowels only in which " i " 

 occurs but seldom. In many words traces of consonants can be 

 detected. The fact that it is so difficult to represent the ape- 

 language with letters does not justify, according to Garner, our 

 doubting the existence of a real ape-language. " Why, indeed ? " 

 he asks. " They see, they hear, they love, they hate, they work 

 with the same implements and for the same objects as men." 



So he concludes that the sounds which the apes utter are 

 voluntary, premeditated and articulate (!) They are always 

 addressed to a particular individual with the view of being 

 understood. The apes are conscious of their purpose, they 

 make a pause after they have spoken and wait for an answer ; 

 if none follows they repeat their words. They usually look at 

 those to whom they speak, and do not talk if they are alone or 

 busy. They understand the sounds of other apes of their 

 own species and answer them, but they also understand the 

 ape-language when imitated by a man either orally or by means 

 of the phonograph. The same sound has the same meaning, 

 different sounds are accompanied by different words and pro- 

 duce different effects. 



Except for the assertion that the speech of apes is articulate 

 one may agree on the whole with Garner's views, for there is 

 nothing in them which does not occur in the intercourse of the 

 higher Vertebrates with each other. It is by no means incon- 

 ceivable that the apes understand when they hear the sound of 

 their own species reproduced by the phonograph, and that 

 they come nearer to the phonograph, hearing a voice and 



