EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



279 



the west side of Africa. In this vast forest live countless numbers 

 of Monkeys, representing several different species, many families of 

 Chimpanzees, and some Gorillas, all in a state of primordial nature. 



"From some of the literature that finds its way into my jungle 

 retreat one might suppose that any casual visitor to a zoological 

 garden can acquire a sufficient knowledge of the Monkey language 

 in a few hours to enable him to discuss the subject with great 

 familiarity, but I must admit that my progress in learning it has been 

 slow and tedious, and I have found it very difficult to grasp the 

 simian idea so easily. 



" I find it very difficult to reduce the vague and often ambiguous 

 meanings of animal speech sounds to any exact formula of human 

 speech, and during the whole twenty years of my studies about 

 ninety words scattered among more than a dozen species embrace the 

 whole vocabulary that I have translated with comparative certainty. 

 During that time I have had access to several hundred specimens, 

 many of them under the most favourable conditions and with all 

 available accessories to aid me, but nine words are the greatest 

 number that I have interpreted in any one language of the Monkey 

 races. On some of those I worked for years, and in the meantime 

 often had to modify my deductions and sometimes entirely abandon 

 them. 



" By long experience I find that the best way to learn the language 

 of a species is by rearing a young specimen by hand, and in the pro- 

 cess one absorbs, as it were, the meaning of the sounds it gradually 

 develops, for such is their way of acquiring speech. I estimate that 

 during the earlier period of life a Monkey baby develops, relatively, 

 about as much in a day as a human baby does in a month ; or, in 

 other words, that one day of a baby Monkey's life is about such a part 

 of its whole life as one month is of a human baby's life." 



Dr. Garner gives the following instances of his success : — 



Nictitans. 



Ladios. 

 ki-uh. 

 kri-i. 

 hu-hu. 

 ahr-r. 



I want' quih 



' Where ? ' ou-rh 



'Here' eu-nh 



A warning khi-iu 



Imminent danger ... khi-iu-hou 



'Hark; chu-h 



'What' — 



ande. 



ek-e. 



ou-oah. 



'Mother' hri 



