46 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



together by a found, which my author likens to the gaggling of 

 geefe. Of this, in procefs of time, a language may have been made, 

 (not in one generation, I am perfuaded, but in fucceiTive generations), 

 fuch as Monf.de la Condamine defcribes the language of a people on 

 thebanksof the river Amazons, or fuch as that of a people of the fame 

 country of South America, called Chiquits. The fpeech of this laft 

 mentioned people refembles inarticulate cries fo much, that you hardly 

 can diftinguiih words in it; and it is fo unintelligible, that the Indians 

 of other nations cannot learn it unlefs they have been taught it very 

 young. Our oldeft MifTionaries, fays our Author, do not underftand 

 it : And they affirm that the people themfelvesfometimes do not un- 

 derftand one another * : Such a half formed language appears to have 

 been ufed by the people in Africa mentioned by Herodotus, who, 

 he fays, made a noife like batts t- Even the Hottentots, who are 

 farther advanced in the arts of life than thofe barbarous nations I 

 have mentioned, ufe a language very inarticulate, refembling the 

 gobbling of Turkeys more than fpeaking J. And Mr Adair, a late 

 traveller in North America, fays that even the nations of Louifiana, 

 who are much more civilized than the Indians further north, fpeak 

 in the fame manner §. 



There was a folitary Savage difcovered in the Pyrenean Moun- 

 tains, as late as the year 1774, by Monfieur Le Roy, a French engi- 

 neer, who was employed there to cut wood for the French Navy. 

 He was frequently feen by the Shepherds, though they could not lay 

 hold of him, being fwifter of foot than even their dogs. They rela- 

 ted many things that he did, but never heard him utter an arti- 

 culate found ; from whence, I think, it may be concluded, with 

 great certainty, that he was mute as well as the folitary Savages that 



have 



* Memoire Geograph. Phyfic. et Hiftoriq. torn. 5. edit. Yverden, 1767. p. 22 x. 



f Lib. iv. cap. 183. 



X See BufFon, Vol. iii p. 4V' 472. 



S Page 80. 



