IFFERENCE IN PHONES OF GENERA]
From the many sounds that I have analysed, it appears to me that there
is a difference in the phones of all different genera, and that the
phonetic basis of human speech more closely resembles that of the Simian
than any other sounds; but I wish to be understood distinctly not to
offer this in evidence to establish any physical, mental, or phonetic
affinity between mankind and Simians. I merely state the facts from
which all theorists may deduce their own conclusions.
CHAPTER XIV.
Monkeys and the Mirror--Some of their Antics--Baby Macaque and
her Papa--Some other Monkeys.
I have incidentally mentioned elsewhere the use of the mirror in some of
my experiments, but I have not described in detail how it affected
various monkeys. Of course, it does not always affect the same monkey in
the same way at different times, nor does it affect all monkeys of the
same species in exactly the same way, and therefore I cannot deduce a
rule from my experiments by which the species can be determined by its
conduct before the glass.
[Sidenote: PUCK AND NELLIE WITH MIRROR]
When Puck saw himself in the mirror he undoubtedly mistook the image for
another monkey, to which he would talk more freely than he would to the
sounds made by the phonograph. He would frequently caress the image,
and show signs of friendship; at the same time he was very timid and
retiring.
Nellie would chatter to herself in the mirror, and seemed never to tire
of looking at that beautiful monkey she saw there, and I do not think
the propensity could be accounted for merely by her sex. I do not think
she ever quite understood where that monkey was concealed, and the
scores of times in a day that she would turn the glass around was
evidence that she never fully despaired of finding it.
I accidentally dropped a small mirror one day by the cage in which there
was a green monkey. The glass was broken into many small pieces. Quick
as thought, the green monkey thrust her arm through the bars, grabbed
the largest piece, and got it into her cage before I was fully aware of
what she was trying to do. The fragment was about an inch wide by an
inch and a half long. She caught a glimpse of herself in the glass, and
her conduct was more like that of a crazy monkey than anything I can
compare it to. She peeped into the fragment of the mirror, which she
seemed to regard as a hole in something which separated her from anot
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