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THE
SPEECH OF MONKEYS
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LONDON:
WILLIAM HEINEMANN,
21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.
THE
SPEECH OF MONKEYS
BY
R. L. GARNER
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1892
[_All rights reserved_]
* * * * *
_To_
_MY DEVOTED WIFE_
_Whose zeal for my success is the light which guides me along the
highway of my labours, and to those earnest friends, Mr. Walter S.
Logan, Judge Charles P. Daly, Mr. James Muhlenberg Bailey, Mr. Samuel S.
McClure, Hon. O. B. Potter, Dr. Alexander Melville Bell, Hon. John Hay,
Professor S. E. Tillman, Mrs. Henry Draper, Mr. J. V. V. Booream, Mr. G.
Hilton Scribner, and Mr. B. Schlesinger, who have opened their purse as
they opened their hearts, and afforded me that aid which made it
possible for me to continue my researches. With them I shall gladly
share the glory of all that my efforts may achieve, and to them, with
profound and affectionate gratitude, this first contribution to Science
on this subject is justly dedicated by_
_THE AUTHOR._
* * * * *
PREFACE
I desire here to express my gratitude to _The New Review_, _The North
American Review_, _The Cosmopolitan_, _The Forum_, and many of the
leading journals of America, for the use of their valuable and popular
pages through which my work has been given to the public. To the press,
English and American, I gladly pay my tribute of thanks for the liberal
discussion, candid criticism, and kind consideration which they have
bestowed upon my efforts to solve the great problem of speech.
In contributing to Science this mite, I do not mean to intimate that my
task has been completed, for I am aware that I have only begun to
explore the field through which we may hope to pass beyond the confines
of our own realm and invade the lower spheres of life.
This volume is intended as a record of my work, and a voluntary report
of my progress, to let the world know with what results my labours have
been rewarded, and with the hope that it may be the means of inducing
others to pursue like investigations.
In prosecuting my studies I have had no precedents to guide me, no
literature to consult, and no landmarks by which to steer my course. I
have, therefore, been compelled to find my own means, suggest my own
experiments, and solve my own problems. Not a line on this subject is to
be found in all the literature of the world, and yet the results which I
have obtained have far surpassed my highest hopes. Considering the
difficulties under which I have been compelled to work, I have been
rewarded with results for which I dared not hope, and this inspires me
to believe that my success will meet my highest wishes when I am placed
in touch with such subjects as I expect to find in the forests of
Tropical Africa.
Only a few of my experiments are recorded in this volume, but as they
illustrate my methods and set forth the results, they will serve to
show, in a measure, the scope of my work.
In the latter part of this work will be found a definition of the word
Speech as I have used it, and the deductions which I have made from my
experiments. I have not ventured into any extreme theories, either to
confirm or controvert the opinions of others, but simply commit to the
world these initial facts, and the working hypotheses upon which I have
proceeded to obtain them.
In Chapter XXI. I have mentioned the particular characteristics which
mark the sound of monkeys as speech, and distinguish them from mere
automatic sounds.
With all the gravity of sincere conviction I commit this volume to the
friends of Science as the first contribution upon this subject.
R. L. GARNER.
NEW YORK, _June 1, 1892_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PAGE
Early Impressions--First Observations of Monkeys--First Efforts
to Learn their Speech--Barriers--The Phonograph Used--A Visit to
Jokes--My Efforts to Speak to Him--The Sound of Alarm Inspires
Terror
1
CHAPTER II.
The Reconciliation--The Acquaintance of Jennie--The
Salutation--The Words for Food and Drink--Little Banquo, Dago,
McGinty, and others
14
CHAPTER III.
Monkeys have favourite Colours--Can distinguish Numbers and
Quantity--Music and Art very limited
24
CHAPTER IV.
Pedro's Speech Recorded--Delivered to Puck through the
Phonograph--Little Darwin learns a new Word
34
CHAPTER V.
Five little Brown Cousins: Mickie, Nemo, Dodo, Nigger, and
McGinty--Nemo apologises to Dodo
47
CHAPTER VI.
Dago Talks about the Weather--Tells me of his Troubles--Dodo in
the "Balcony Scene"--Her Portrait by a great Artist
59
CHAPTER VII.
Interpretation of Words--Specific Words and Signs--The Negative
Sign and Sounds--Affirmative Expressions--Possible Origin of
Negative and Positive Signs
69
CHAPTER VIII.
Meeting with Nellie--Nellie was my Guest--Her Speech and
Manners--The little Blind Girl--One of Nellie's Friends--Her
Sight and Hearing--Her Toys, and how she Played with Them
83
CHAPTER IX.
Nellie's Affections--A little Flirtation--Some of my Personal
Friends
97
CHAPTER X.
The Capuchin Vocabulary--What I have Found--What I Foresee in it
105
CHAPTER XI.
The Word for Food in the Rhesus Dialect--The Rhesus Sound of
Alarm--The Dialect of the White-face--Dolly Varden, "Uncle
Rhemus," and others
111
CHAPTER XII.
Atelles or Spider Monkeys--The Common Macaque--Java Monkeys, and
what they say--A Happy Family
121
CHAPTER XIII.
The Extent of my Experiments--Apes and Baboons--Miscellaneous
Records of Sound--The Vocal Index
131
CHAPTER XIV.
Monkeys and the Mirror--Some of their Antics--Baby Macaque and
her Papa--Some other Monkeys
138
CHAPTER XV.
Man and Ape--Their Physical Relations--Their Mental
Relations--Evolution was the Means--Who was the Progenitor of
the Ape?--The Scale of Life
146
CHAPTER XVI.
The Faculty of Thought--Emotion and Thought--Instinct and
Reason--Monkeys Reason--Some Examples
156
CHAPTER XVII.
Speech Defined--The True Nature of Speech--The Use of
Speech--The Limitations of Speech
169
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Motives of Speech--Expression--The Beginning of Human
Speech--The Present Condition of Speech
177
CHAPTER XIX.
Language embraces Speech--Speech, Words, Grammar, and Rhetoric
183
CHAPTER XX.
Life and Consciousness--Consciousness and Emotion--Emotion and
Thought--Thought and Expression--Expression and Speech--The
Vocal Organs and Sound--Speech in City and Country--Music,
Passions, and Taste--Life and Reason
190
CHAPTER XXI.
Certain Marks which Characterise the Sounds of Monkeys as
Speech--Sounds Accompanied by Gestures--Certain Acts follow
certain Sounds--They acquire new Sounds--Their Speech addressed
to certain Individuals--Deliberation and Premeditation--They
remember and anticipate Results--Thought and Reason
200
CHAPTER XXII.
The Phonograph as an Aid to Science--Vowels the Basis of
Phonation--Consonants Developed from a Vowel Basis--Vowels are
Compound--The Analysis of Vowels by the Phonograph--Current
Theories of Sound--Augmentation of Sounds--Sound Waves and Sound
Units--Consonants among the Lower Races
208
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Human Voice--Human Bagpipe--Human Piccolo, Flute, and
Fife--The Voice as a Whistle--Music and Noise--Dr. Bell and his
"Visible Speech"
219
CHAPTER XXIV.
Some Curious Facts in Vocal Growth--Children and
Consonants--Single, Double, and Treble Consonants--Sounds of
Birds--Fishes and their Language--Insects and their Language
224
CHAPTER XXV.
Facts and Fancies of Speech--Language in the Vegetable
Kingdom--Language in the Mineral Kingdom
237
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SPEECH AND REASON OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
Dash and the Baby--Two Collies talk--Eunice understands her
Mistress--Two Dogs and the Phonograph--A Canine Family--Cats and
Dogs--Insects--Signs and Sounds
246
* * * * *
THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS
CHAPTER I.
Early Impressions--First Observations of Monkeys--First Efforts
to Learn their Speech--Barriers--The Phonograph Used--A Visit to
Jokes--My Efforts to Speak to Him--The Sound of Alarm inspires
Terror.
From childhood, I have believed that all kinds of animals have some mode
of speech by which they could talk among their own kind, and have often
wondered why man had never tried to learn it. I often wondered how it
occurred to man to whistle to a horse or dog instead of using some sound
more like their own; and even yet I am at a loss to know how such a
sound has ever become a fixed means of calling these animals. I was not
alone in my belief that all animals had some way to make known to others
some certain things; but to my mind the means had never been well
defined.
[Sidenote: FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF MONKEYS]
About eight years ago, in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, I was deeply
impressed by the conduct of a number of monkeys occupying a cage with a
huge, savage mandril, which they seemed very much to fear and dislike.
By means of a wall, the cage was divided into two compartments, through
which was a small doorway, just large enough to allow the occupants of
the cage to pass from one room to the other. The inner compartment of
the cage was used for their winter quarters and sleeping apartments; the
outer, consisting simply of a well-constructed iron cage, was intended
for exercise and summer occupancy. Every movement of this mandril seemed
to be closely watched by the monkeys that were in a position to see him,
and instantly reported to the others in the adjoining compartment. I
watched them for hours, and felt assured that they had a form of speech
by means of which they communicated with each other. During the time I
remained, I discovered that a certain sound would invariably cause them
to act in a certain way, and, in the course of my visit, I discovered
that I could myself tell, by the sounds the monkeys would make, just
what the mandril was doing--that is, I could tell whether he was asleep
or whether he was moving about in his cage. Having interpreted one or
two of these sounds, I felt inspired with the belief that I could learn
them, and felt that the "key to the secret chamber" was within my grasp.
I regarded the task of learning the speech of a monkey as very much the
same as learning that of some strange race of mankind, more difficult in
the degree of its inferiority, but less in volume.
Year by year, as new ideas were revealed to me, new barriers arose, and
I began to realise how great a task was mine. One difficulty was to
utter the sounds I heard, another was to recall them, and yet another
to translate them. But impelled by an inordinate hope and not
discouraged by poor success, I continued my studies, as best I could, in
the Gardens of New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Chicago, and with
such specimens as I could find from time to time with travelling shows,
hand-organs, aboard some ship, or kept as a family pet. I must
acknowledge my debt of gratitude to all these little creatures who have
aided me in the study of their native tongue.
[Sidenote: ACTING AS INTERPRETER]
Having contended for some years with the difficulties mentioned, a new
idea dawned upon me, and, after maturely considering it, I felt assured
of ultimate success. I went to Washington, and proposed the novel
experiment of acting as interpreter between two monkeys. Of course this
first evoked from the great fathers of science a smile of incredulity;
but when I explained the means by which I expected to accomplish this, a
shadow of seriousness came over the faces of those dignitaries to whom
I first proposed the novel feat. I procured a phonograph upon which to
record the sounds of the monkeys. I separated two monkeys which had
occupied the same cage together for some time, and placed them in
separate rooms of the building where they could not see or hear each
other. I then arranged the phonograph near the cage of the female, and
by various means induced her to utter a few sounds, which were recorded
on the cylinder of the phonograph. The machine was then placed near the
cage containing the male, and the record repeated to him and his conduct
closely studied. He gave evident signs of recognising the sounds, and at
once began a search for the mysterious monkey doing the talking. His
perplexity at this strange affair cannot well be described. The familiar
voice of his mate would induce him to approach, but that squeaking,
chattering horn was a feature which he could not comprehend. He traced
the sounds, however, to the horn from which they came, and, failing to
find his mate, thrust his arm into the horn quite up to his shoulder,
then withdrew it, and peeped into it again and again. The expressions of
his face were indeed a study. I then secured a few sounds of his voice
and delivered them to the female, who showed some signs of interest, but
the record was very imperfect and her manner seemed quite indifferent.
In this experiment, for the first time in the history of language, was
the Simian speech reduced to record; and while the results were not
fully up to my hopes, they served to inspire me to further efforts to
find the fountain-head from which flows out the great river of human
speech. Having satisfied myself that each one recognised the sound made
by the other when delivered through the phonograph, I felt rewarded for
my labour and assured of the possibility of learning the language of
monkeys. The faith of others was strengthened also, and while this
experiment was very crude and imperfect, it served to convince me that
my opinions were correct as to the speech of these animals.
[Sidenote: RECORDS OF SOUNDS]
In this case I noticed the defects which occurred in my work and
provided against them, as well as I could, for the future. Soon after
this I went to Chicago and Cincinnati, where I made a number of records
of the sounds of a great number of monkeys, and among others I secured a
splendid record of the two chimpanzees contained in the Cincinnati
collection, which I brought home with me for study. The records that I
made of various specimens of the Simian race I repeated to myself over
and over, until I became familiar with them, and learned to imitate a
few of them, mostly by the use of mechanical devices. After having
accomplished this I returned to Chicago, and went at once to visit a
small Capuchin monkey whose record had been my chief study. Standing
near his cage, I imitated a sound which I had translated "milk," but
from many tests I concluded it meant "food," which opinion has been
somewhat modified by many later experiments which led me to believe
that he uses it in a still wider sense. It is difficult to find any
formula of human speech equivalent to it. While the Capuchin uses it
relating to food and sometimes to drink, I was unable to detect any
difference in the sounds. He also seemed to connect the same sound to
every kindly office done him, and to use it as a kind of "Shibboleth."
More recently, however, I have detected in the sound slight changes of
inflection under different conditions, until I am now led to believe
that the meaning of the word depends somewhat, if not wholly, on its
modulation. The phonetic effect is rich and rather flute-like, and the
word resembles somewhat the word "who." Its dominant is a pure vocal
"u," sounded like "oo" in "too," which has a faint initial "wh," both
elements of which are sounded, and the word ends with a vanishing "w."
The literal formula by which I would represent it is "wh-oo-w." The word
which I have translated "drink" begins with a faint guttural "ch," and
glides through a sound resembling the French diphthong "eu," and ends
with a slight "y" sound as in "ye."
So far I have found no trace of the English vowels "a," "i," or "o,"
unless it be in the sound emitted under stress of great alarm or in case
of assault, in which I find a close resemblance to the vowel "i," short
as in "it."
[Sidenote: FIELD OF OPERATIONS EXTENDED]
After having acquired a sound or two, I extended my field of operations
and began to try my skill as a Simian linguist on every specimen with
which I came in contact.
In Charleston, a gentleman owns a fine specimen of the brown Cebus whose
name is Jokes. He is naturally shy of strangers, but on my first visit
to him I addressed him in his native tongue, and he really seemed to
regard me very kindly; he would eat from my hand and allow me to caress
him through the bars of his cage. He eyed me with evident curiosity, but
invariably responded to the word which I uttered in his own language.
On my third visit to him I determined to try the effect of the peculiar
sound of "alarm" or "assault" which I had learned from one of this
species; but I cannot very well represent it in letters. While he was
eating from my hand, I gave this peculiar piercing note, and he
instantly sprang to a perch in the top of his cage, thence in and out of
his sleeping apartment with great speed, and almost wild with fear.
[Sidenote: HARSH MEANS RESORTED TO]
As I repeated the sound his fears seemed to increase, until from a mere
sense of compassion I desisted. No amount of coaxing would induce him to
return to me or to accept any offer of peace which I could make. I
retired to a distance of about twenty feet from his cage, and his master
induced him to descend from the perch, which he did, with the greatest
reluctance and suspicion. I gave the sound again from where I stood, and
it produced almost the same results as before. The monkey gave out a
singular sound in response to my efforts to appease him, but refused to
become reconciled. After the lapse of eight or ten days, I had not been
able to reinstate myself in his good graces, or to induce him to accept
anything whatever from me. At this juncture I resorted to harsher means
of bringing him to terms, and began to threaten him with a rod. At first
he resented this, but soon yielded and came down merely from fear. He
would place the side of his head on the floor, put out his tongue, and
utter a very plaintive sound having a slight interrogative inflection.
At first this act quite defied interpretation; but during the same
period I was visiting a little monkey called Jack. For strangers, we
were quite good friends, and Jack allowed me many liberties which the
family assured me he had uniformly refused to others. On one of my
visits he displayed his temper, and made an attack upon me because I
refused to let go of a saucer from which I was feeding him with some
milk. I jerked him up by the chain and slapped him sharply, whereupon
he instantly laid the side of his head on the floor, put out his tongue,
and made just such a sound as Jokes had made a number of times before.
It occurred to me that it was a sign of surrender, and many subsequent
tests have confirmed this opinion. Mrs. M. French Sheldon, in her
journey through East Africa, shot a small monkey in a forest near Lake
Charla. She described to me how the little fellow stood high up in a
tree and chattered to her in his sharp, musical voice, until at the
crack of her gun he fell mortally wounded. When he was laid dying at her
feet, he turned his bright little eyes pleadingly upon her as if to ask
for pity. Touched by his appeal, she took the little creature in her
arms to try to soothe him. Again and again he would touch his tongue to
her hand as if kissing it, and seemed to wish in the hour of death to be
caressed, even by the hand that slew him, and which had taken from him
without reward that life which could be of no value except to spend in
the wild forest where his kindred monkeys live.
[Sidenote: MODE OF EXPRESSING SUBMISSION]
This peculiar mode of expressing submission seems to be very widely
used, and from her description of the actions of that monkey, his
conduct must have been identical with that of the Cebus; and to my mind
may justly be interpreted to mean, "Pity me, I will not harm you." I
have recently learned that a Scotch naturalist, commenting on my
description of this act and its meaning, quite agrees with me, and
states that he has observed the same thing in other species of monkeys.