330 



NATURAL SCIENCE. Nov.. 



selves so far as to elect husbands — whether for a season or for life is 

 immaterial— on the strength of their terpsichorean proficiency. What 

 a profligate generation ! Yet dancing is an ancient practice and one 

 that, while it " corresponds to a universal primitive instinct in 

 man,"' has been brought to a high state of perfection by him. We 

 may hence conclude that if the "higher animals" possess an artistic 

 appreciation of dancing, and if female predilections have fostered the 

 development of this pastime by the selection of the best performing 

 males, and if our early progenitors can be fairly described as " higher 

 animals," such preposterous merry-making is as natural with man as 

 it would be discreditable. More's the pity, indeed, that female 

 preferences should produce so little that is lovely in these latter days. 



So insensible are the gradations existing between the simplest 

 and the most complex of these phenomena of nuptial flight or dance, 

 that I am driven to the conclusion that gestures and gamboUings of 

 all denominations throughout the various orders of saltatory nature — 

 from the " unusual antics and gyrations "^ of worms up to the contor- 

 tions performed by the gilded youth in modern ball-rooms — will ulti- 

 mately be found to be only the outcome of that unfortunate " surplus 

 vitality " which is no nonentity, but a factor to be taken into account. 

 Here lies, indeed, the root of the whole matter. For surplus vitality 

 is another name for the primary physiological processes that supply 

 the material (be it colour, or structures, or exuberant activity, or song) 

 whose subsequent elaboration, as incompatible with the principle of 

 utility, is entrusted to female preferences. 



A curious parallel could be drawn between the evolution of the 

 human arts of dancing and music. Neither of them, I think, have 

 the origin ascribed to them in the " Descent of Man " or the " Expres- 

 sion of the Emotions." The infantile and savage delight derived 

 from the mere repetition of musical sounds stands on a level with the 

 unpremeditated caperings indicative of high spirits in the young of 

 many animals, including man. But after some time their dormant 

 complexities are stirred up and rendered subservient to a variety of 

 ends. Thus arise purposive specialisations, such as warlike music, 

 religious dances, etc. Certain forms of both these arts are purely 

 erotic, or " decorative." Yet there is nothing to warrant the belief 

 that either their origin or any successive stage of elaboration is due 

 to predilections on the part of the female sex. 



In this connection, one or two points in Darwin's chapters on 

 " Sexual Selection in Relation to Man " may be noticed. 



It is generally accepted that among savage tribes the men pay 

 quite as much attention as the women to their tattooings, coiffures, 



^ Mrs. Grove, " On the Ethnographic Aspect of Dancing." The taste for 

 dancing, doubtless, like other characters originally confined to the male, will have 

 been gradually transferred to the other sex. Even now among savage nations it is the 

 males who principally indulge in this sport. 



'■' Beddard, " Animal Coloration," p. 268. 



