Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language

CHAPTER XXIV. The Treatment of Apes in

The Treatment of Apes in Captivity--Temperature--Building--Food--Occupation 278

INDEX 287

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

PORTRAIT OF R. L. GARNER Frontispiece

PELVIS OF THE CHIMPANZEE 5

DIAGRAM NO. 1 (CRANIO-FACIAL ANGLES) 8

DIAGRAM NO. 2 (CRANIO-FACIAL ANGLES) 9

DIAGRAM NO. 3 (CRANIO-FACIAL ANGLES) 9

DIAGRAM NO. 4 (CRANIO-FACIAL ANGLES) 10

MONKEY LEARNING TO COUNT 33

NATIVE VILLAGE AT GLASS GABOON 61

A NATIVE CANOE 63

THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 65

IN THE JUNGLE 67

WAITING AND WATCHING IN THE CAGE 69

STARTING FOR A STROLL 74

A PEEP AT MY CAGE 75

PREPARING FOR THE NIGHT 83

KANJO NTYIGO-CHIMPANZEE DANCE 103

NATIVE CARRIER BOY 119

A STROLL IN THE JUNGLE--MR. GARNER, MOSES, AND NATIVE BOY 127

ELISHEBA AND AARON 169

NATIVE VILLAGE, INTERIOR OF NYANZA 176

CONSUL II RIDING A TRICYCLE 194

MR. CROWLEY, LATE OF THE NEW YORK ZOÖLOGICAL GARDEN 199

SKULLS OF GORILLAS--FRONT VIEW 220

SKULLS OF GORILLAS--PROFILE VIEW 220

NATIVES SKINNING A GORILLA 222

YOUNG GORILLA WALKING 226

SALLY JONES (YOUNG GORILLA) CAUGHT NAPPING 243

GORILLA MOTHER WITH YOUNG 257

PLAIN AND EDGE OF FOREST IN THE COUNTRY OF THE APES 271

YOUNG ORANGS 275

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 animals have no rights whatever, and that men should be kind to them simply for the reason that it was desirable that men should improve their own characters. If I tied a tin pail to a dog’s tail, I injured my character. If I patted the dog on the head, I improved my character. “See all things for my use,”--this was really the motto of a book of ethics somewhat famous in its day.

Happily the world has lived beyond such a crusty selfishness as this,--happily, perhaps, not for mankind only. Happily for our thought of the universe in which we live, men have found out that they have duties towards animals as they have duties towards each other,--say that in a certain sense we are the gods of animals, to whom they look up as we look up to our Father in heaven; let us, at least, treat them as we would be treated.

How shall we do this? How shall we come at some understanding of their life, of their needs, of their hopes and fears? How can we be just to them?

Mr. Garner has set to work in this business with systematic perseverance and a real comprehension of the position. Of all the inferior animals, these monkeys and apes, it seems, have more machinery for thought, if I may use so clumsy an expression, than have any others. The book will tell the reader why it is easier to come at some notion of the language of the Capuchin monkey than it is to apprehend the method by which the horse communicates with the horse, or the blackbird with the blackbird. With scientific precision, Mr. Garner has availed himself of this fact, is availing himself of it at the moment when I write. He has selected animals, which are certainly animals and not men. He has selected these as those where his study can be precise, and where it is most easy to arrive at correct conclusions; and it is not in the study merely of speech and of listening; it is study of what I may call the principles which underlie animal life, to which this explorer in a new field has devoted himself. The reader of this book will understand why it is that he gives up years of life to such society as that his dear little Moses gave him; why he plunges into

The multitudinous abyss Where nature joys in secret bliss,

that he may come at some of the secrets of those beings who are at home there.

Mr. Garner does not ask himself, and I do not propose that the reader shall ask, what changes may ensue in the trade of the world from his discovery. He does not pretend that there will be more palm oil, or more Manila hemp, because we understand monkeys and apes and gorillas and orangs better than our fathers. But he believes, and those who have followed him with sympathy believe, that we shall know more of ourselves, that we shall know more of the universe in which we live, that we shall know more of God, the I Am, who is the life of this universe, than our fathers knew, if this brave explorer is able to carry on farther such investigations as this book describes.

May his life be prolonged for such study; it has been long enough now for us to owe him a large debt of gratitude for the lifelong sacrifice and determination with which he has prosecuted these studies thus far.

EDWARD E. HALE.

October 26, 1900.

APES AND MONKEYS

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 have served to amuse rather than to instruct the masses. But now that the search-light of science is being thrown into every nook and crevice of nature, human interest in them is greatly increased and the savants of all civilized lands are wrestling with the problem of their possible relationship to mankind. With the desire of learning as much as possible concerning their habits, faculties, and mental resources, they are being studied from every point of view, and each characteristic is seriously compared in detail to the corresponding one in man. Concurrent with this desire, we shall note the chief points of resemblance and of difference between them.

In order to appreciate more fully the value of the lessons to be drawn from the contents of this volume we must know the relative planes that men and monkeys occupy in the scale of nature. Within the limits of this work, however, we can only compare them in a general way. Since monkeys differ so widely among themselves, it is evident that all of them cannot in the same degree resemble man; and as the degree of interest in them is approximately measured by their likeness or unlikeness to man, it is apparent that all cannot be of equal interest as subjects of comparative study. But since each forms an integral part of one great scale, each one is equally important in tracing out the continuity of the order to which all belong.

The vast family of simians has perhaps the widest range of types of any single family of animals. Beginning with the great apes, which in size, form, and structure so closely resemble man, we descend the scale until it ends in the lemurs, which are almost on the level of rodents. The descent is so gradual that it is difficult to draw a line of demarcation at any point between the two extremes. There is now, however, an effort being made to separate this family into smaller and more distinct groups; but the lines between them are not sharply drawn, and the literature of the past has a tendency to retard the effort. But we shall not here assume to discuss the problems with which zoölogy may in the future have to contend; we shall accept the current system of classification and proceed along that line.

In the language of the masses all the varied types that belong to the simian family are known as monkeys. This term is so broad in its application as to include many forms which are not to be considered in this work, and many of them should be known under other names. Some of these resemble man more than they resemble each other. By the word monkey, we mean to refer only to those of the simian tribe that have long tails and short faces, while the word baboon refers only to the dog-like forms having tails of medium length and long projecting faces. The term ape will be applied only to those having no tails at all. While all of these animals are called simians, they are not all monkeys.

The simian family is divided into two great classes, known as old world monkeys and new world monkeys. The chief point of distinction is in the structure of the nose. All of the monkeys belonging to the old world stock have long, straight noses with vertical nostrils, separated by a narrow thin wall, or septum, and from this fact they are technically known as catarrhini. The new world stock have short, flat noses with oblique nostrils set wide apart, and on this account they are known as platarrhini. There are many other marks that distinguish genera and species, but these are the two grand divisions of the simian race. We shall not here attempt to classify the many genera and species of either of these divisions. But we shall point out some of the most salient anatomical features of men and apes, and then those of monkeys.

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