204 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



the only decisive factor in fixing the degree of develop- 

 ment for the respective languages. The capuchin mon- 

 keys for instance have their own vocabulary, likewise 

 the white faces and the mangabi. The latter speak very 

 little, are rather ugly in communication with other in- 

 dividuals of their own tribe, and have an outspoken shy- 

 ness for the phonograph. The rhesus may be the bush- 

 man of their race, while we might find in the chimpanzee 

 the Aryan, the highest development. 



The most important and most frequent word in the 

 little vocabulary of any monkey will evidently be that 

 for " food." After a long and careful study of the word 

 used by the capuchin, Mr. Garner landed on the formula 

 wh-oo-w to represent it. He hesitated for a long time 

 before committing himself, as he was fully aware of the 

 difiiculty of spelling a word with letters when the sound 

 itself was almost like the note of a flute. Since that 

 time he has been able to test the correctness of that 

 formula by means of the phonograph and succeeded in 

 doing so. The record of the sound which probably 

 means "'drink " may be expressed by the letters ch-eu w, 

 giving the ch a guttural value as in the German word 

 "ich," blending the eu somewhat like the same letters 

 in French, and closing with a vanishing w as in the first 

 word described above. The rhesus monkey's word, for 

 food may be represented by the letters nqu-u-uw. Also 

 this formula has been subjected to phonographic tests, 

 and been found to be about the best literal formula that 

 our alphabet can furnish. But many of the sounds of 

 these little creatures cannot be represented by letters 

 found in any alphabet. So it has been impossible yet to 

 record the sound which means food in the dialect of the 

 sooty mangaby monkey. It is very nearly represented 

 by wuh-uh-uh, uttered as a guttural and with a marked 

 tremolo. The sound is low in pitch, and the syllables 

 are uttered in rapid succession. When this monkey is 



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