THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 87 



pressed a wish, to obtain a thing, and appeared 

 to me to be almost equivalent to the verb "give," 

 when used in the imperative mood ; something 

 like this: "Give me that." I have succeeded a 

 great number of times, by the use of this word, 

 in inducing McGinty to give me a part of his 

 food, and on many occasions to hand me from 

 his cage a ball, a club, or some such thing that 

 I had given him to play with. Under suitable 

 conditions I could soon determine to what ex- 

 tent these inflections control their actions, but 

 with the surroundings of a zoological garden the 

 task is very difficult. However, I am quite sat- 

 isfied that the sound which I have translated food 

 is shaded by them into several kindred meanings. 



The word " drink" appears to be more fixed, 

 both in its form and meaning. I have not yet 

 been able to detect any difference in the sound 

 whether water, milk, or other liquids be desired ; 

 but this is quite natural, since they have but lit- 

 tle variety in the things they drink. 



I am not sure how far the sound which I had 

 thought meant "weather," or in some w T ay allud- 

 ed to the state of the weather, may be relied 

 upon as a separate word. It w T as so closely 

 connected to the speech of discontent or pain 



