DIFFERENCES IN PREVALENT SOUNDS. 561 



neighbours' compliments." The same habit has been noticed 

 also in the South of France ; according to Diodorus Siculus, 

 i t prevailed at his time in Corsica ; and, finally, it " is said 

 still to exist in some cantons of Beam, where it is called 

 faire la couvade." 



Again, the love of life the dread of death are among the 

 strongest of our feelings. " Everything that a man hath he 

 will give in exchange for his life." This is true, but by no 

 means universally so. According to Azara, the Indians of 

 Paraguay have a great indifference to death ; and we have 

 already seen that this is the case with the Fijians ; while 

 Burton makes a similar statement as regards the Negroes of 

 Dahomey. Among the Chinese it is said that a man con- 

 demned to death, if permitted to do so, may always secure 

 a substitute on payment of a moderate sum of money ; and 

 a coffin is regarded as a most appropriate present for an aged 

 relative. 



Again, the sounds of which language is constituted differ 

 extremely in different parts of the world. The clicks of the 

 Hottentots are a striking illustration of this. The Hurons 

 did not use the labials ; the Indians of Port au Fran^ais in 

 Columbia, according to M. de Lamanon,* make no use of 

 the consonants b, f, x, j, d, p, or v. The Peruvian language 

 wanted the letters &, d, f, g, s, and #.( The Australians did 

 not use the sound conveyed by our letter s.j Many of the 

 Negroes have no r. The Fijians do not use the letter c, the 

 Somo-Somo dialect has no k, that of Rakiraki and other parts, 

 no . The Society Islanders and Australians exclude both 

 s and c.\\ In representing the New Zealand language, the 



* Voyage de la Perouse, vol. ii. t Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 757; D'Ur- 

 p. 211. ville, vol. i. pp. 188, 199, 481. 



t Garcilasso de la Vega. Mark- Williams, Figi and the Figians, 

 ham's Translation, Author's Pre- vol. i. p. v. 257. 

 face, p. x. || Ellis, Polynesian Researches, 



vol. i. p. 77. 



2o 



