206 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



children. So Mr. Garner tied a long thread to a glove, 

 and placed it in a corner of the room at a distance of 

 several feet from him, but without letting the capuchin 

 monkey which was there see it. Holding the end of 

 the string in his hand, he drew the glove obliquely 

 across the room toward the cage. Quickly the monkey 

 observed the hrst motion, and began to warn his master. 

 Standing almost on tiptoe, mouth half open, he peeped 

 cautiously, and then in a low whisper said " egck," and 

 every few seconds repeated it, at the same time glancing 

 at Mr. Garner to see vrhether he was aware of the 

 approach of this goblin. His actions were almost 

 human, while his movements were as stealthy as those 

 of a cat. As the glove came closer and closer, he was 

 more and more demonstrative, and when at last he saw 

 the monster climbing up the leg of Mr. Garner's trousers, 

 the monkey uttered the sound aloud, and tried to get 

 to the enemy. Having done this a few times with about 

 the same results, Mr. Garner relieved the little urchin's 

 fright and anxiety by letting him examine the glove, 

 which he did with deep interest for a moment, and then 

 turned away disgusted. When afterward Mr. Garner 

 repeatedly tried the same thing, he failed to elicit the 

 slightest interest from his pet. 



Many times monkeys, when very good humored, utter 

 sounds for which no satisfactory explanation could be 

 found, until Mr. Garner by means of phonographic ex- 

 periments found out that they were real loud laughter. 

 Some people said that it was not really laughter, but 

 only a good natured growling, but if this is correct, the 

 same is true of human laughter, for Mr. Garner suc- 

 ceeded in converting one into the other, and thus deceived 

 the very elect of musicians and philologists. He simply 

 took a record of a monkey laughing while the cylinder 

 was revolving at the highest rate of speed he could ob- 

 tain, and by reducing it to a very low rate he lengthened 



