Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

 

Remarkable Instances of Language and Combination.

     In Mansfield Parkyn’s work on Abyssinia is a remarkable account of language and the consequent power of combination among the monkey tribe.

     “You may see them quarreling, making love, mothers taking care of their children, combing their hair, nursing and suckling them; and the passions, jealousy, anger, love as fully and distinctly marked as in men. They have a language as distinct to them as ours is to us; and the women are as noisy and fond of disputation as any fish-fag in Billingsgate.

     ‘The monkeys, especially the Cynocephali, whom are astonishingly clever fellows, have their chiefs, whom they obey implicity, and a regular system of tactics in war, pillaging expeditions, robbing corn-fields, etc.

     “These monkey forays are managed with the utmost regularity and precaution. A tribe, coming down to feed from their village on the mountain [usually a cleft in the face of some cliff], brings with it all its members, male and female, old and young. Some, the elders of the tribe, distinguishable by the quantity of mane which covers their shoulders like a lion’s take the lead, passing cautiously over each precipice before they descend, and climbing to the top of every rock or stone which may afford them a better view of the road before them.

     “Others have their posts as scouts on the flanks or rear; and all fulfill their duties with the utmost vigilance, calling out at times, apparently to keep order among the motly pack which forms the main body, or to give notice of the approach of any real or imagined danger. Their tones of voice on those occasions are so distinctly varied that a person much accustomed to watch their movements will at length fancy-and perhaps with some truth-that he can understand their signals.