66 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



sign, doubtless, comes from an effort to turn the 

 head away from something which is not desired, 

 and that, with such an intent, it has gradually 

 crystallized into an instinctive expression of nega- 

 tion or refusal ; while the nod of affirmation or 

 approval may have grown out of the intuitive 

 lowering of the head as an act of submission or 

 acquiescence, or from reaching the head forward 

 to receive something desired, or it may have 

 come from these two causes conjointly. 



This is only one of a great many points in 

 which the speech of simians coincides with that 

 of man. It is true we have no letters in our 

 alphabet with which to represent the sounds of 

 their speech, nor have we the phonetic equiva- 

 lence of their speech in our language ; but it is 

 also true that our alphabet does not fully repre- 

 sent or correctly express the entire phonetic 

 range of our own speech ; but the fact that our 

 speech is not founded upon the same phonetic 

 basis, or built up into the same phonetic struct- 

 ures, is no reason that their speech is not as truly 

 speech as our own. That there are no letters 

 in any alphabet which represent the phonetic 

 elements of simian speech is doubtless due to 

 the fact that there has never been any demand 



