54 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



she would fly at me with great fury and attempt 

 to tear my very clothes off, and on these occa- 

 sions she would not allow any other inmate of 

 the cage to approach him or to receive his atten- 

 tion or caresses. The sounds which she uttered 

 were pitiful at times, and the tale she told must 

 have been full of the deepest woe. I have not 

 been able, up to this time, to translate these 

 sounds literally ; but their import cannot be mis- 

 understood. My belief is that her speech was a 

 complaint against the inmates of the cage, and 

 that she was begging her keeper not to leave her 

 alone in that great iron prison with all those big 

 bad monkeys who were so cruel to her. One 

 reason for believing this to be the nature of her 

 speech is that in all cases where I have heard 

 this speech and seen these gestures made, the 

 conditions were such as to indicate that such was 

 its nature. It has, however, every appearance 

 of love-making of the most intense type. It is 

 quite impossible to describe fully and accurately 

 the sounds, and much more so the gestures, made 

 on these occasions, so that the reader would be 

 impressed as with the real act and speech. Dodo 

 would stand erect on her feet, cross her hands 

 on her heart, and in the most touching but 



