172 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



monkeys of different species do not understand 

 each until they have been together for some 

 time. Each one learns to understand the speech 

 of the other, but as a rule he does not try to 

 speak it. When he deigns an answer it is usu- 

 ally in his own tongue. The more fixed and pro- 

 nounced the social and gregarious instincts are 

 in any species, the higher the type of its speech. 

 They often utter certain sounds under certain 

 conditions in a whisper, which indicates that they 

 are conscious of the effect which will result from 

 the use of speech. Monkeys reason from cause to 

 effect, communicate to others the conclusion de- 

 duced therefrom, and act in accordance there- 

 with. If their sounds convey a fixed idea on a 

 given subject from one mind to another, what 

 more does human speech accomplish? If one 

 sound communicates that idea clearly, what more 

 could volumes do? If their sounds discharge all 

 the functions of speech, in what respect are they 

 not speech ? 



It is as reasonable to attribute meaning to their 

 sounds as to attribute motives to their actions, 

 and the fact that they ascribe a meaning to the 

 sounds of human speech would show that they 



