MUSICAL TASTE OF MONKEYS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 369, 4 June 1903, Page 3

MUSICAL TASTE OF MONKEYS.

A«cordia«r to This Authority It UmmM ta tbtt Baffpivea of WUioh Thar Aan> Very FomdL

Now that Prof. Garner is instructing- us in the language of monkeys, it becomes a matter of family interest, as it were, to note" any peculiarities of development in the animals from which the evolutionists maintain that the human race descended or, more properly speaking, ascended. It may be classed with the study of genealogy. The author of ".Studies in Corsica" touches on monkey music is speaking of the bagpipe. "The well-known boast of patrio''. Scotchmen that the bagpipe is saci to Scotland, and .speaking a langu." ;,. which only Scotchmen feel, is alight in foundation as it is in import. In Syria, in Persia, in Afghanistan and India, in i let, throughout the south of both Europe and Asia, the bagpipe is known and is enthusiastically cultivated. "In India, if I may believe some soldier friends, the pipes attached to the Highland regiments are far more enjoyed by the native population than the best brass bands of other battalions.

"Nay, so much akin to our original nature is the dulcet music of the simple bagpipe that it is the one sort of music which stirs the monkeys. Por, according to the testimony of the same officers, the Indian monkey*, although unmoved by bands, are bo powerfully fascinated by the Scottish pibroch that when a detachment of Highlanders is marching td the pipes, and when the roadway traversed ia lined with trees, the monkeys will follow the troopa with signs of delight, scrambling after them from tree to tree. From facts such A* these one cannot, doubt that the bagpipe tet am of qui oldest tastm* scaents." —L: .-.;.. _