and would say nothing.  The Professor says that he asked it why it was angry.  He admits that he had learned no more than forty words of this language, but believes that there are perhaps thirty more.  Much however is expressed, as he says, by mere intonation.  Anger, for instance; and scores of allied words, such as terrible, frightful, kill, whether noun, verb or adjective, are expressed, he says, by a mere growl.  Nor is there any word for ``Why,’’ but queries are signified by the inflexion of the voice.

When he asked it why it was angry the gorilla said that men killed him, and added a noise that the professor said was evidently meant to allude to guns.  The only word used, he says, in this remark of the gorilla’s was the word that signified ``man.’’ The sentence as understood by the professor amounted to ``Man kill me.  Guns.’’ But the word ``kill’’ was represented simply by a snarl, ``me’’ by slapping its chest, and ``guns’’ as I have explained was only represented by a noise.  The Professor believes that ultimately a word for guns may be evolved out of that noise, but thinks that it will take many centuries, and that if during that time guns should cease to be in use, this stimulus being withdrawn, the word will never be evolved at all, nor of course will it be needed.

The Professor tried, by evincing interest, ignorance, and incredulity, and even indignation, to encourage the gorilla to say more; but to his disappointment, all the more intense after having exchanged that one word of conversation with one of the beasts, the gorilla only repeated what it had said, and beat on the cage again.  For half an hour this went on, the Professor showing every sign of sympathy, the gorilla raging and beating upon the cage.

It was half an hour of the most intense excitement to the Professor, during which time he saw the realization of dreams that many considered crazy, glittering as it were within his grasp, and all the while this ridiculous gorilla would do nothing but repeat the mere shred of a sentence and beat the cage with its great hands; and the heat of course was intense.  And by the end of the half hour the excitement and the heat seem to have got the better of the Professor’s temper, and he waved the disgusting brute angrily away with a gesture that probably was not much less impatient than the gorilla’s own.  And at that the animal suddenly became voluble.  He beat more furiously than ever upon the cage and slipped his great fingers through the bars, trying to reach the Professor, and poured out volumes of ape-chatter.

Why, why did men shoot at him, he asked.  He made himself terrible, therefore men ought to love him.  That was the whole burden of what the Professor calls its argument. ``Me, me terrible,’’ two slaps on the chest and then a growl. ``Man love me.’’ And then the emphatic negative word, and the sound that meant guns, and sudden furious rushes at the cage to try to get at the Professor.