RELATIONS OF SPEECH TO HUMAN PROGRESS 521 



kongoni antelopes on the East African plains. These creatures 

 seem, from a kind of natural officiousness, to have assumed 

 the position of guardians over the zebras, gnus, and other 

 antelopes which habitually graze with them. Not only does the 

 kongoni mount himself upon an anthill to watch for danger — 

 this is common enough — but evidently he is determined that, 

 if any warning is given of the approach of a beast of prey, it 

 should not be ignored by the other beasts which he has set 

 himself to serve. He will attract their attention by various 

 antics when he has a warning to give, and will even start to 

 round them up almost like a sheep-dog if they should persist 

 in ignoring his advice. 



Obviously among forest-dwelling animals sight and scent 

 must play a much less important part than in those who live 

 out on the plains ; hence we find that here vocal methods of 

 intercommunication take precedence over such safeguards as 

 those employed by the antelopes and their allies. One common 

 habit resorted to among gregarious creatures, who are perforce 

 concealed from one another while seeking food among the 

 herbage, is that of making a continual subdued noise so that 

 their kindred who are not far off can keep in touch with them. 

 This is doubtless the explanation of the continuous automatic 

 grunting of the pig, and the "small-talk" of many other birds 

 and animals. It is certainly an interesting fact that the same 

 widely distributed habit reaches to the lemurs — who are con- 

 tinually grunting; but whether it goes beyond them among 

 the Primates proper I have not been able to ascertain. 



Now useful as this instinctive or mechanical method shows 

 itself to be, it is easy to see what an enormous stride would 

 at once be made if, when the alarmed animal warned its fellows, 

 it could so adapt its vocal message to a special case as to tell 

 the exact nature of the danger, and the direction from which 

 it might be expected. For instance, let the approaching enemy 

 be either a tiger or a leopard. If the giver of the warning — 

 who we will suppose to be a very primitive man approaching 

 a band of his fellows — could clearly indicate that it was a tiger, 

 obviously the climbing of any stout tree would suffice to procure 

 safety for every one. But if the warning said " leopard " only 

 an immediate flight to certain selected places of safety in the 

 very tree-tops would give security. 



As soon as the ground became the new theatre of man's 



