WHISTLING. 251 



fifty years after its publication ; even Tycho Brahe opposed it ; it can 

 therefore scarcely cause surprise that Luther rejected it, that Giordano 

 Bruno died at the stake for his advocacy of it, while the less steadfast 

 Galileo was forced to renounce it. 



Notwithstanding the pessimism of our speculative philosophers, 

 who deny all progress because they contribute nothing toward it, Dar- 

 win's lot was happier than that of the great reformer of astronomy. 

 While Copernicus could only feast his eyes on the first printed copy 

 of his work as he lay on his death-bed, because he had not dared to 

 publish it sooner, although he had completed it some years before, 

 Darwin survived the appearance of his nearly a quarter of a century. 

 He witnessed the fierce struggles its appearance at first gave rise to ; 

 its ever-increasing acceptance and its final triumph, to which he, cheer- 

 ful and active to the last, greatly contributed by a long series of ad- 

 mirable works. 



While the Holy Inquisition persecuted the followers of Copernicus 

 with fire and sword, Charles Darwin lies buried in Westminster Abbey 

 among his peers, Newton and Faraday. 



-- 



WHISTLING. 



By T. F. THISELTON DYEE. 



IN whatever way regarded, either as a graceful accomplishment or as 

 the spontaneous expression of light-heartedness, whistling has in 

 our own and foreign countries generally attracted considerable atten- 

 tion. Why it should have been invested with so much superstitious 

 awe it is difficult to say, but it is a curious fact that the same antipa- 

 thy which it arouses among certain classes of our own countrymen 

 is found existing in the most distant parts of the earth, where, as yet, 

 civilization has made little or imperceptible progress. Thus Captain 

 Burton * tells us how the Arabs dislike to hear a person whistle, called 

 by them el sifr. Some maintain that the whistler's mouth is not to be 

 purified for forty days ; while, according to the explanation of others, 

 Satan touching a man's body causes him to produce, what they con- 

 sider, an offensive sound f The natives of the Tonga Islands, Poly- 

 nesia, hold it to be wrong to whistle, as this act is thought to be dis- 

 respectful to God.J In Iceland, the villagers have the same objection 

 to whistling, and so far do they carry their superstitious dread of it 

 that " if one swings about him a stick, whip, wand, or aught that 



* "First Footsteps in East Africa," 1856, p. 142. 

 f Carl Engel, " Musical Myths and Faets," 1876, i, 91. 



\ "Mariner and Martin: An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands," 1S18, 

 ii, 131. 



