The Speech of Monkeys

CHAPTER X. The Capuchin Vocabulary--What I have Found--What I Foresee in it. Up to this time I have been able to determine with a fair degree of certainty nine words or sounds belonging to Capuchins, some of which sounds are so inflected as to have two or three different meanings, I think. The sound which I have translated food and found to have a much wider meaning, long perplexed me, because I found it used under so many conditions and had not been able to detect any difference of modulation. I find one form of this sound used for food in general, but when modulated in a certain way seems to specify the kind of food. I observed that this sound seemed to be a salutation or peacemaking term with them, which I attributed to the fact that food was the central thought of every monkey's life, and that consequently that word would naturally be the most important of his whole speech. During the past winter, I found that another modulation of this word expressed 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 extent these inflections control their actions, but with the surroundings of a zoological garden the task is very difficult. However, I am quite satisfied that the sound which I have translated food is shaded by them into several kindred meanings.