j6 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



louder, and when she discovered the monster, as 

 she regarded it, climbing up my leg she uttered 

 her warning in a loud voice — not a scream or a 

 yell, but in a tone sufficiently loud for the dis- 

 tance over which the warning was conveyed. 

 The fact of her whispering indicates that her 

 idea of sound was well defined. Her purpose 

 was to warn me of the approaching danger with- 

 out alarming the object against which her warn- 

 ing was intended to prepare me, and as the dan- 

 ger approached me her warning became more 

 urgent, and when she saw the danger was at 

 hand, her warning was no longer concealed or 

 restrained. 



Another sound which these little creatures use 

 in a somewhat similar manner is a word which 

 may be represented by the letters "c-h-i." The 

 "ch" is guttural, like the final "ch" in German, 

 and " i" short, like the sound of i in " hit. " This 

 sound is used to give warning of the approach of 

 something which the monkey does not fear, 

 such as approaching footsteps or the sound of 

 voices, and Nellie always used this sound to 

 warn my wife of my approach when I was com- 

 ing up the stairway. The rooms which I occu- 

 pied while I kept Nellie were located on the sec- 



