Onzj . XIX. Man — Love of Ornament. 573 



As the males of several quadrumanous animals have their 

 vocal organs much more developed than in the females, and as a 

 gibbon, one of the anthropomorphous apes, pours forth a whole 

 octave of musical notes and may be said to sing, it appears pro- 

 bable that the progenitors of man, either the males or females or 

 both sexes, before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual 

 love in articulate language, endeavoured to charm each other 

 with musical notes and rhythm. So little is known about the 

 use of the voice by the Quadrumana during the season of love, 

 that we have no means of judging whether the habit of singing 

 was first acquired by our male or female ancestors. Women 

 are generally thought to possess sweeter voices than men, and as 

 far as this serves as any guide, we may infer that they first 

 acquired musical powers in order to attract the other sex. 41 But 

 if so, this must have occurred long ago, before our ancestors had 

 become sufficiently human to treat and value their women merely 

 as useful slaves. The impassioned orator, bard, or musician, 

 when with his varied tones and cadences he excites the strongest 

 emotions in his hearers, little suspects that he uses the same 

 means by which his half-human ancestors long ago aroused each 

 other's ardent passions, during their courtship and rivalry. 



Tlie Influence of Beauty in determining the Marriages of Man- 

 kind. — In civilised life man is largely, but by no means exclu- 

 sively, influenced in the choice of his wife by external appearance ; 

 but we are chiefly concerned with primeval times, and our only 

 means of forming a judgment on this subject is to study the 

 habits of existing semi-civilised and savage nations. If it can be 

 shewn that the men of different races prefer women having 

 various characteristics, or conversely with the women, we have 

 then to enquire whether such choice, continued during many 

 generations, would produce any sensible effect on the race, 

 either on one sex or both according to the form of inheritance 

 which has prevailed. 



It will be well first to shew in some detail that savages pay the 

 greatest attention to their personal appearance. 42 That they have 



u articulate sounds, they were com- selves, is given by the Italian tra 



" municated by tones, varied accord- veller, Prof? Mantegazza, ' Rio de la 



" ing to different, degrees of gravity Plata, Viaggi e Studi,' 1867, pp. 



" and acuteness." 525-545 ; all the following state- 



u See an interesting discussion ments, when other references are 



jn this subject by Hiickel, 'Gene- not given, are taken from this work, 



•vile Morph,' B. ii. 1866, s. 246. See, afco, Waitz, ' Introduct. to 



42 A full and excellent account of Anthropolog.' Eng. transl. vol. i 



the manner in which savages in all 1863, p. 275, et passim. Lawrence 



parts of the world ornament them- also gives v* r y full details in his 



