It is quite impossible to represent the sounds of monkey speech by any literal formula, and it is difficult to translate them into their exact equivalent of human speech; but, in order to convey some idea of the nature and scope of that speech, I shall describe a word or two. In the tongue of the brown Capuchin monkey the most important word somewhat resembles the word “who,” uttered like “wh-oo-w.” The phonetic effect is rich and musical. The vowel element which dominates it is a pure vocal “u.” The radical meaning of this sound is food, which is the central thought of every monkey’s life. It does not only mean food in the concrete sense, referring to the thing to be eaten, but it sometimes refers to the act of eating, in which sense it has the character of a verb. At other times it refers to the desire to eat or to the sensation of hunger, in which instance it may be said to have the character of an adjective. But grammatical values depend upon structure, and since the speech of monkeys is _monophrastic_ it cannot truly be said to have grammatical form. All the sounds of this species, so far as I have seen, are monosyllables; and most of them contain but one distinct phonetic. I have therefore described them as “monophonetic.” The word above described is sometimes used with the apparent purpose of expressing friendship, or something of that kind. Another word which refers to drink, or liquid, begins with a faint guttural “ch,” gliding through a sound resembling the French diphthong “eu,” and ending with a vanishing “y.” The sound is used with reference to drink in much the same way as the other sound is used with reference to food. So far I have not found any trace of the vowels “a,” “e,” “i,” or “o,” sounded long, but in one sound of alarm emitted under stress of great fear or in case of assault, the vowel element resembles short “i.” This sound is uttered in a pitch about two octaves above a human female voice. All of the sounds made by monkeys and, so far as I have observed, by other animals, refer to their natural physical wants. They are not capable of expressing intricate or abstract thoughts, for the animal himself has no such thoughts. Their simple modes of life do not require complex thoughts.