Apes And Monkeys: Their Life And Language - free ebook by R. L. (Richard Lynch) Garner

APES AND MONKEYS THEIR LIFE AND LANGUAGE

BY R. L. GARNER With an Introduction by EDWARD EVERETT HALE Boston, U.S.A., and London GINN &amp; COMPANY, PUBLISHERS The Athenæum Press Entered at Stationers’ Hall Copyright, 1900 By GINN &amp; COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 24.12...

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PREFACE

This volume is the natural product of many years devoted by the author to studying the speech and habits of monkeys. That naturally led him up to the study of the great apes. The matter contained in this work is chiefly a record of the tabulated facts gleaned from his special field of research. The aim in view is to convey to the casual reader a more correct idea than now prevails concerning the physical, mental, and social habits of apes and monkeys and to prepare him for a wider appreciation o

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INTRODUCTION

Mr. Garner’s book needs no introduction. By this I mean that I think that no intelligent person will open into it without wishing to read more and more. The book is its own introduction. I write these lines, not so much to explain what the book is as to introduce Mr. Garner himself to people who do not know him, that they may thank him for the step forward which he has made and is making. It is hardly half a century since one of the highest authorities in the Church of England told us that anima

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CHAPTER I

Monkeys, Apes, and Men—Comparative Anatomy—Skulls—The Law of Cranial Projection From time immemorial monkeys have been subjects of interest to the old and to the young. The wise and the simple are alike impressed with their human looks and manners. There are no other creatures that so charm and fascinate the beholder as do these little effigies of the human race. With equal delight, patriarchs and children watch their actions and compare them to those of human beings. Until recent years monkeys

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CHAPTER II

Early Impression—What is Speech—First Efforts—The Phonograph—The First Record of Monkey Speech—Monkey Words—Phonetics—Human Speech and Monkey Speech Among the blue hills and crystal waters of the Appalachian Mountains, remote from the artificialities of the great cities, the conditions of life under which I grew up were more primitive and less complex than they are in the busy centers of vast population. There nature was the earliest teacher of my childhood, and domestic animals were among my fi

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CHAPTER III

Monkey Friends—Jokes—The Sound of Alarm—Jennie A few years ago there lived in Charleston, S. C. , a fine specimen of the brown Cebus. His name is Jokes. He was naturally shy of strangers, but on my first visit to him I addressed him in his native tongue, and he seemed to regard me very kindly. He ate from my hand and allowed me to handle and caress him. He watched me with evident curiosity, and invariably responded to the sound that I uttered in his own language. On one occasion I tried the effe

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CHAPTER IV

Monkey Ethics—Sense of Color—Monkeys Enumerate—First Principles of Art Monkeys have a simple code of ethics. It is not by any means to be supposed that their sense of propriety or appreciation of color, form, dimension, or quality is of a high order; but that they have the rudiments upon which the higher cults of human society are based there is no doubt. Among the experiments that I performed along this line were some designed to ascertain the strength of these latent faculties or the degree to

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CHAPTER V

Pedro’s Speech Recorded—Delivered to Puck through the Phonograph—Little Darwin Learns a New Word In the Washington collection there was once a Capuchin monkey by the name of Pedro. When I first visited this bright little fellow he occupied a cage in common with several other monkeys of different kinds. All of them seemed to impose upon little Pedro, and a mischievous young spider-monkey found special delight in catching him by the tail and dragging him about the floor of the cage. I interfered o

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CHAPTER VI

Five Little Brown Cousins, Mickie, McGinty, Nemo, Dodo, and Nigger—Nemo Apologizes to Dodo During the winter of 1891 there lived in Central Park five little brown monkeys, all of the same kind and occupying the same cage. They were all of more or less interest, and all of them were my friends. I paid them frequent visits and spent much time with them. I have the vanity to believe that I was always a welcome guest. We found much pleasure in each other’s society. As the monkey house was open to th

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CHAPTER VII

Meeting with Nellie—Nellie was my Guest—Her Speech and Manners—Helen Keller and Nellie—One of Nellie’s Friends—Her Sight and Hearing—Her Toys and how She Played with Them One of the most intelligent of my brown Capuchin friends was little Nellie. When she arrived in Washington, I was invited to visit her. I introduced myself by speaking to her the sound of food. To that she promptly replied. She was rather informal, and we were soon engaged in a chat on that subject—the one that above all others

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CHAPTER VIII

Caged in an African Jungle—The Cage and its Contents—Its Location—Its Purpose—The Jungle—The Great Forest—Its Grandeur—Its Silence It will be of interest to the reader to know the manner in which I have pursued the study of monkeys in a state of nature, and the means employed to that end. I, therefore, give a brief outline of my life in a cage in the heart of the African jungle, where I went in order to watch the denizens of the forest when free from all restraint. Having for several years devot

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CHAPTER IX

Daily Life and Scenes in the Jungle—How I Passed the Time—What I Had to Eat—How it was Prepared—How I Slept—My Chimpanzee Companion I am so frequently asked about the details of my daily life in the cage, how the time was occupied, and what I saw besides the apes, that I deem it of interest to relate a few of the events of my sojourn in that wild spot. I shall, therefore, recount the incidents of a single day and night; but from day to day of course this routine varied. About six o’clock, as the

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CHAPTER X

The Chimpanzee—The Name—Two Species—The Kulu-Kamba Distribution—Color and Complexion Next to man the chimpanzee occupies the highest plane in the scale of nature. His mental and social traits, together with his physical type, assign him to this place. In his distribution he is confined to equatorial Africa. His habitat, roughly outlined, is from the fourth parallel north of the equator to the fifth parallel south of it, along the west coast, and extends eastward a little more than halfway across

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CHAPTER XI

Physical Qualities of the Chimpanzee—His Social Habits—Mental Characteristics Physically considered, the chimpanzee very closely resembles man, but there are certain points in which he differs both from man and from other apes. We may notice a few of these points. The model of the ear of the chimpanzee closely resembles that of man, but the organ is larger in size and thinner in proportion. It is very sensitive to sound, but dull to touch. The surface is not well provided with nerves. He cannot

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CHAPTER XII

The Speech of Chimpanzees—A New System of Phonetic Symbols—Some Common Words—Gestures The speech of chimpanzees (as of other simians) is limited to a few sounds, and these chiefly relate to their natural wants. The entire vocabulary of their language embraces perhaps not more than twenty-five or thirty words. Many of them are vague or ambiguous, but they express the concept of the ape with as much precision as it is defined to his mind, and quite distinctly enough for his purpose. During my rese

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CHAPTER XIII

Moses—His Capture—His Character—His Affections—His Food—His Daily Life—Anecdotes of Him During my sojourn in the forest I had a fine young chimpanzee, which was of ordinary intelligence, and he was of more than ordinary interest, because of his history. I gave him the name Moses,—not in derision of the historic Israelite of that name, but owing to the circumstances of his capture and his life. He was found all alone in a wild papyrus swamp of the Ogowé River. No one knew who his parents were. Th

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CHAPTER XIV

The Character of Moses—He Learns a Human Word—He Signs His Name to a Document—His Illness—Death I know of nothing in the way of affection and loyalty among animals that can exceed the devotion of my Moses. Not only was he tame and tractable, but he never tired of caressing me and being caressed by me. For hours together he would cling to my neck, play with my ears, lips, and nose, bite my cheek, and hug me like a last hope. He was never willing for me to put him down from my lap, never willing f

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CHAPTER XV

Aaron—His Capture—Mental Powers—Acquaintance with Moses—His Conduct during Moses’ Illness Having arranged my affairs in Ferran Vaz so as to make a journey across the great forest that lies to the south of the Nkami country and separates it from that of the Esyira tribe, I set out by canoe to a point on the Rembo about three days’ journey from the place where I had so long lived in my cage. At a village called Tyimba I disembarked and, after a journey of five days and a delay of three more days,

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CHAPTER XVI

Aaron and Elisheba—Their Characteristics—Anecdotes—Jealousy of Aaron Four days after the death of Moses I secured passage on a trading boat that came into the lake. The boat was a small affair, intended for towing canoes, and not in any way prepared to carry passengers or cargo; but I found room in one of the canoes to set the cage I had provided for Aaron, stowed the rest of my effects wherever space permitted, and embarked for the coast. Our progress was slow and the journey tedious. The only

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CHAPTER XVII

Illness of Elisheba—Aaron’s Care of Her—Her Death—Illness and Death of Aaron At the end of forty-two long days at sea we arrived at Liverpool. It was near the end of autumn. The weather was cold and foggy. Elisheba was failing in health, as I feared she would do, having come from the warm, humid climate along the equator, and, at the same time, having undergone a change of food. On arriving at the end of our long and arduous voyage, I secured quarters for the apes and quickly had them stowed awa

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CHAPTER XVIII

Other Chimpanzees—The Village Pet—A Chimpanzee as Diner-Out—Notable Specimens in Captivity Among the number of chimpanzees that I have seen are some whose actions are worthy of record; but as many of them were the repetitions of similar acts of other specimens which are elsewhere described, I shall omit mention of them and relate only such other acts as may tend to widen the circle of our knowledge, and more fully illustrate the mental range of this interesting tribe of apes. In passing through

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CHAPTER XIX

Other Kulu-Kambas—A Knotty Problem—Instinct or Reason—Various Types Whether the kulu-kamba is a distinct species of ape, or only a well-marked variety of the chimpanzee, he is by far the finest representative of his genus. Among those that I have seen are some very good specimens, and the clever things that I have witnessed in them are sufficient to stamp them as the highest type of all apes. On board a small river steamer that plies the Ogowé was a young female kulu that belonged to the captain

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CHAPTER XX

The Gorilla—His Habitat—Skeleton—Skull—Color—Structural Peculiarities In the order of nature the gorilla occupies the second place below man. His habitat is the lowlands of tropical West Africa, and it is confined to very narrow limits. The vague lines which bound his realm cannot be defined with absolute precision, but those generally given in books that treat of him are not correct. If he ever occupied any part of the coast north of the equator, he has long since become extinct in that part; b

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CHAPTER XXI

Habits of the Gorilla—Social Traits—Government—Justice—Mode of Attack—Screaming and Beating—Food Studying the habits of the gorilla in a wild state is attended with much difficulty, but the results obtained during my sojourn of nearly four months among them in the forest are an ample reward for the efforts made. In captivity the habits of animals are made to conform in a measure to their surroundings, and since those are different from their natural environment, many of their habits differ in a

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CHAPTER XXII

Othello and Other Gorillas—Othello and Moses—Gorilla Visitors—Gorilla Mother and Child—Scarcity of Gorillas—Unauthentic Tales While I was living in my cage in the jungle I secured the young gorilla to whom I gave the name Othello. He was about six months old, strong, hardy, and robust. I found him to be a fine subject for study and made the best use of him for that purpose. I have elsewhere described his character, but his illness and death are matters of interest. At noon on the day of his dece

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CHAPTER XXIII

Other Apes—The Apes in History—Habitat—The Orangs—The Gibbon In the various records that constitute the history of these apes are found many novel and incoherent tales, but most of them appear to rest upon some basis of truth. In order to arrive at a more definite knowledge concerning them, we may review the data at our command. In the annals of the world, the first record that alludes to these manlike apes is that of Hanno, who made a voyage from Carthage to the west coast of Africa, nearly fiv

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CHAPTER XXIV

The Treatment of Apes in Captivity—Temperature—Building—Food—Occupation In conclusion I deem it in order to offer a few remarks with regard to the causes of death among these apes, and to say something regarding the treatment of animals in captivity. We know so little and assume so much concerning them that we often violate the very laws which we are trying to enforce. We have already noticed the fact that the gorilla is confined by nature to a low, humid region, reeking with miasma and the effl

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WAYS OF WOOD FOLK

By William J. Long Fascinating descriptions of animals and birds as seen at play in their homes. Illustrated with 7 full-page engravings on wood from drawings by Charles Copeland and William Hamilton Gibson, and numerous smaller pictures and illustrative initials and head-pieces. Square 12mo. Cloth. 214 pages. 75 cents....

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WILDERNESS WAYS

A second volume of “Ways of Wood Folk.” Written in the same intensely interesting style that makes its predecessor so popular. With 7 full-page illustrations and numerous illustrative initials and head-pieces by Charles Copeland. Square 12mo. Cloth. 200 pages. 75 cents....

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MOTHER NATURE’S CHILDREN

By Allen Walton Gould The love and care and mutual dependence of living things, from human beings down to the plants, set in an imaginative framework for children. With 200 illustrations. Square 12mo. Cloth. 265 pages. $1.25....

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BIRD WORLD

By J. H. Stickney and Ralph Hoffman A charming bird book for young people. With 10 full-page illustrations by Ernest Seton-Thompson, and colored plates from nature. Square 12mo. Cloth. 214 pages. 75 cents....

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FRIENDS AND HELPERS

Compiled by Sarah J. Eddy Man’s helpers in the animal world and how they may be treated with considerate kindness. With 75 illustrations, many of them from photographs made especially for this book. Square 12mo. Cloth. 241 pages. 75 cents....

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MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES

By Mary C. Dickerson A popular book on the life and habits of moths and butterflies. With more than 200 illustrations from photographs and drawings made especially for this book. Square 12mo. Cloth. Ginn &amp; Company, Publishers Trade Department 9-13 Tremont Place, Boston...

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