THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 59 



were so limited in number as to preclude any 

 specific terms in their vocabulary ; but now I am 

 inclined to modify this opinion somewhat, as I 

 have reason to believe that they have some spe- 

 cific terms, such as a word for " monkey," another 

 word for " fruit," and so on. They do not specify, 

 perhaps, the various kinds of monkeys, but mon- 

 keys in general, in contradistinction to birds or 

 dogs. Their word for fruit does not specify 

 the kind, but only means fruit in a collective 

 sense, and only as a kind of food. I am not pos- 

 itive as yet that their specific terms may even 

 go so far as this ; but I infer that such may be 

 the case from one fact which I have observed in 

 my experiments. When I show a monkey his 

 image in a mirror, he utters a sound on seeing 

 it — especially if he has been, kept away from other 

 monkeys for a long time ; and all monkeys of the 

 same species, so far as I have observed, under 

 like conditions use the same sound and address 

 it in the same way to the image in the glass. In 

 a few instances I have seen strange monkeys 

 brought in contact with each other, and have ob- 

 served that they use this same sound on their 

 first meeting. The sound is always uttered, in a 

 low, soft tone, and appears to have the value of 



