FIRST EFFORTS I 5 



After spending some hours watching their conduct and 

 listening to the sound which controlled it, I became con- 

 vinced that what they said was sufficiently definite to 

 guide the actions of those to whom it was addressed. In 

 fact I should have been willing to intrust my own safety 

 to those warnings. After a brief study of those sounds I 

 was able to understand the attitude of the baboon towards 

 his neighbors ; and while the warning contained no elabo- 

 rate detail that I could understand, the nature of his 

 actions was made evident. I observed that a certain 

 sound of warning caused them to act in a certain way, 

 and a certain other sound caused them to act differently. 



From this start I determined to learn the speech of 

 monkeys. I did not suspect that the task would be so 

 great as it has proved to be. I did not foresee the diffi- 

 culties that have since become apparent. Year by year, 

 as new ideas came to me, new barriers arose and the hori- 

 zon continually widened. Yet I was not discouraged at 

 the poor success of my first efforts. From time to time 

 I visited the various collections of monkeys in this coun- 

 try and even availed myself of those found with traveling 

 shows, hand organs, and elsewhere. 



After some years of casual study it occurred to me 

 that the phonograph would be a great aid in solving this 

 problem. It would enable me to make more accurate 

 comparisons of the sounds made by different monkeys ; and 

 after duly considering the matter I went to Washington 

 and made my purpose known to Dr. Baker, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. This at first evoked from him a smile, 

 but after explaining the means by which it was hoped to 



