Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/147

Rh with designs that represent twelve flowers or other things appropriate to the months of the year. Each card is distinct and different from its fellows, even though it bears the same emblem; and they can be easily distinguished and classified, even if they bear the same emblem, by the symbolic flowers they bear, and also by a character or letter that marks nearly every card, and seems to denote the plant that represents the month. The only month that has no floral emblem is August, and that suit is marked by mountains and warm-looking skies.

The Monkey Language.—The results of experiments in the language of monkeys are published by Prof Garner in the New Review. Most of them were made in the United States. He had long believed, he says, that each sound uttered by an animal had a meaning which any other animal of the same kind would interpret at once; and had observed, as most of us have done, that animals soon learn to interpret certain words of man and to obey them, but never try to repeat them. When they reply to man it is in their own peculiar speech. The author began his studies by visiting the zoological gardens of the United States and watching and listening to the monkeys in their prattle. By permission of Dr. Frank Baker, of the National Zoölogical Garden, two monkeys which had been caged together were separated and placed in different rooms. A phonograph was arranged near the cage of the female, into which she was made to speak. It was then made to repeat her "words" near the cage of the male. His surprise and perplexity "were evident. He traced the sounds to the horn from which they came, and, failing to find his mate, he thrust his hand and arm into the horn quite up to the shoulder, withdrew it, and peeped into the horn again and again. He would then retreat and again cautiously approach the horn, which he examined with evident interest. The expressions of his face were indeed a study." This satisfied Prof. Garner that the monkey recognized the sounds as those of his mate. He then managed to get some sounds from him which the mate in her turn recognized. The next recorded interviews were with two chimpanzees, from which a fine, distinct record was secured, and with a capuchin monkey in the Cincinnati garden. The author spoke to the monkey in his own tongue, using the word supposed to stand for milk. The monkey "rose, answered me with the same word, and came at once to the front of his cage. He looked at me as if in doubt, and I repeated the word; he did the same, and turned at once to a small pan in the cage, which he picked up and placed near the door at the side, and returned to me and uttered the word again. I asked the keeper for some milk, which he did not have, however, but brought me some water. The efforts of my little simian friend to secure the glass were very earnest, and the pleading manner and tone assured me of his extreme thirst. I allowed him to dip his hand into the glass, and he would suck his fingers and reach again. I kept the glass from reach of his hand, and he would repeat the sound and beg for more. I was thus convinced that the word I had translated milk must also mean water, and from this and other tests I at last determined that it meant also drink and probably thirst. I have never seen a capuchin who did not use these two words. The sounds are very soft and not unlike a flute, very difficult to imitate, and quite impossible to write." Other sounds were detected for solid food or the hunger for it, pain and sickness, and for alarm. On the utterance of the last, the monkey sprang to the highest point in his cage, and on repetitions of it became almost frantic with dread—so that the sound for food would for the time have no inducements for him. These sounds Prof. Garner regards as the constituents of a monkey language which has a variety of dialects, according to the species addressed.

Famous Japanese Swords.—A Japanese short sword exhibited by Mr. Inman Homer before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia is distinguished by an inscription on the blade. Mr. Benjamin Smith Lyman said that this inscription was in Japanese characters, and appeared to be the name of the sword. "It is not usual," he said, "for swords to have a name in Japan, but it is sometimes the case, as in Europe. Two famous swords are recorded