38o MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



the two was that, while Darwin referred the origin of articu- 

 late speech from instinctive cries, &c., to the anthropoid 

 apes. Noire referred it to a being already human. In other 

 words, Noire adopted what I have here called the third hypo- 

 thesis, which assumes a speechless form of man as anterior to 

 the existing form.* But, as a result of further deliberation. 

 Noire came to the conclusion that " the objects of fear and 

 trembling and dismay are even now the least appropriate to 

 enter into the pure, clear, and tranquil sphere of speech- 

 thought, or to supply the first germs of it." Accordingly, he 

 discarded the view that these germs were to be sought in 

 instinctive cries and danger calls, in favour of the hypothesis 

 that articulation had its origin in sounds which are made 

 by bodies of men when engaged in common occupations. 

 Having already explained the elements of this Yo-he-ho 

 theory, it will here be enough to repeat that I think there is 

 probably some measure of truth in it ; although I likewise 

 think it self-evident that this cannot have been the only source 

 of aboriginal speech. In what proportion this branch of ono- 

 matopoeia was concerned in the genesis of aboriginal words — 

 supposing it to have been concerned at all — we have now no 

 means of even conjecturing. But seeing that there are so many 

 other sources of onomatopoeia supplied by Nature, and that 

 these other sources are so apparent in all existing languages, 

 while the one suggested by Noire has not left a record of its 

 occurrence in any language, — seeing these things, I conclude, 

 as before stated, that at best the Yo-he-ho principle can be 

 accredited with but a small proportional part in the aboriginal 

 genesis of language.f Therefore, with respect to this hypo- 

 thesis I have only three remarks to make: (i) that it is 



* This is likewise the view that was ably supported by Geiger on philological 

 grounds, Ursprimg der Sprache, 1869 ; and by Haeckel on grounds of general 

 reasoning. His toy of Creation, English trans., 1S76. 



t " How many of the roots of language were formed in this way it is impossible 

 to say ; but when we consider that there is no modern word which we can derive 

 from such cries as the sailor makes when he hauls a rope, or the groom when he 

 cleans a horse, it does not seem likely that they can have been very numerous " 

 (Sayce, Introduction, ^c, i., p. no). 



