Chapter I: 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 of animals in general.

The favorable conditions under which the writer has been placed, in the study of these animals in the freedom of their native jungle, have not hitherto been enjoyed by any other student of nature.

A careful aim to avoid all technical terms and scientific phraseology has been studiously adhered to, and the subject is treated in the simplest style consistent with its dignity. Tedious details are relieved by an ample supply of anecdotes taken from the writer’s own observations. Most of the acts related are those of his own pets. A few of them are of apes in a wild state. The author has carefully refrained from abstruse theories or rash deductions, but has sought to place the animals here treated of in the light to which their own conduct entitles them, allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions.

The author frankly confesses to his own belief in the psychic unity of all animate nature. Believing in a common source of life, a common law of living, and a common destiny for all creatures, he feels that to dignify the apes is not to degrade man but rather to exalt him.

Believing that a more perfect knowledge of these animals will bring man into closer fellowship and deeper sympathy with nature, and with an abiding trust that it will widen the bounds of humanity and cause man to realize that he and they are but common links in the one great chain of life, the author gives this work to the world. When once man is impressed with the consciousness that in some degree, however small, all creatures think and feel, it will lessen his vanity and ennoble his heart.

THE AUTHOR

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION xi

CHAPTER I

Monkeys, Apes, and Men--Comparative Anatomy--Skulls--The
Law of Cranial Projection 1

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 12

CHAPTER III

Monkey Friends--Jokes--The Sound of Alarm--Jennie 24

CHAPTER IV

Monkey Ethics--Sense of Color--Monkeys Enumerate--First
Principles of Art 30

CHAPTER V

Pedro’s Speech Recorded--Delivered to Puck through the
Phonograph--Little Darwin Learns a New Word 38

CHAPTER VI

Five Little Brown Cousins: Mickie, McGinty, Nemo, Dodo, and
Nigger--Nemo Apologizes to Dodo 45

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 52

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 60

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 73

CHAPTER X

The Chimpanzee--The Name--Two Species--The
Kulu-Kamba--Distribution--Color and Complexion 85

CHAPTER XI

Physical Qualities of the Chimpanzee--His Social Habits--Mental
Characteristics 92

CHAPTER XII

The Speech of Chimpanzees--A New System of Phonetic Symbols--Some
Common Words--Gestures 108

CHAPTER XIII

Moses--His Capture--His Character--His Affections--His Food--His
Daily Life--Anecdotes of Him 117

CHAPTER XIV

The Character of Moses--He Learns a Human Word--He Signs
His Name to a Document--His Illness--Death 134

CHAPTER XV

Aaron--His Capture--Mental Powers--Acquaintance with Moses--His
Conduct during Moses’ Illness 144

CHAPTER XVI

Aaron and Elisheba--Their Characteristics--Anecdotes--Jealousy
of Aaron 153

CHAPTER XVII

Illness of Elisheba--Aaron’s Care of Her--Her Death--Illness
and Death of Aaron 167

CHAPTER XVIII

Other Chimpanzees--The Village Pet--A Chimpanzee as Diner-Out--Notable
Specimens in Captivity 175

CHAPTER XIX

Other Kulu-Kambas--A Knotty Problem--Instinct or Reason--Various
Types 202

CHAPTER XX

The Gorilla--His Habitat--Skeleton--Skull--Color--Structural
Peculiarities 211

CHAPTER XXI

Habits of the Gorilla--Social Traits--Government--Justice--Mode
of Attack--Screaming and Beating--Food 231

CHAPTER XXII

Othello and Other Gorillas--Othello and Moses--Gorilla
Visitors--Gorilla Mother and Child--Scarcity of Gorillas--Unauthentic
Tales 247

CHAPTER XXIII

Other Apes--The Apes in History--Habitat--The Orangs--The
Gibbon 266