38 MEANS OF EXPRESSION Chap. IV. 



themselves take pleasure in their own vocal utterances; 

 but why particular sounds are uttered, and why these 

 give pleasure cannot at present be explained. 



That the pitch of the voice bears some relation to 

 certain states of feeling is tolerably clear. A person 

 gently complaining of ill-treatment, or slightly suffer- 

 ing, almost always speaks in a high-pitched voice. Dogs, 

 when a little impatient, often make a high piping note 

 through their noses, which at once strikes us as plain- 

 tive; 4 but how difficult it is to know whether the sound 

 is essentially plaintive, or only appears so in this par- 

 ticular case, from our having learnt by experience what 

 it means! Eengger, states 5 that the monkeys (Cebus 

 azarce), which he kept in Paraguay, expressed astonish- 

 ment by a half -piping, half- snarling noise; anger or im- 

 patience, by repeating the sound liu liu in a deeper, 

 grunting voice; and fright or pain, by shrill screams.* 

 On the other hand, with mankind, deep groans and high 

 piercing screams equally express an agony of pain. 

 Laughter may be either high or low; so that, with adult 

 men, as Haller long ago remarked, 6 the sound partakes 

 of the character of the vowels (as pronounced in German) 

 and A ; whilst with children and women, it has more 

 of the character of E and I ; and these latter vowel- 

 sounds naturally have, as Helmholtz has shown, a higher 

 pitch than the former; yet both tones of laughter equally 

 express enjoyment or amusement. 



In considering the mode in which vocal utterances 

 express emotion, we are naturally led to inquire into 



4 Mr. Trior ('Primitive Culture,' 1871, vol. i. p. 166), 

 in his discussion on this subject, alludes to the whining 

 of the dog-. 



5 ' Xaturgeschichte der SUugethiere von Paraguay,' 1830, 

 s. 46. 



6 Quoted by Gratiolet, ' De la Physionomie,' 1865, p. 

 115. 



