274 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON 



Mr. Romanes concludes this chapter by some ob- 

 servations concerning the real or supposed deficiency 

 of language-structure amongst savages. In a note he 

 tries to meet * the assertions of such writers as " Du 

 Ponceau, Charlevoix, James, Appleyard, Threlkeld, Cald- 

 well, etc., who have sought to represent that the lan- 

 guages of even the lowest savages are 'highly systematic 

 and truly philosophical,' " as follows : He tells us that 

 their opinion " rests on a radically false estimate of the 

 criteria of system and philosophy in a language. For 

 the criteria chosen are exuberance of synonyms, intri- 

 cacies or complications of forms, etc., which are really 

 works of a low development." 



Hov/ever this may be, such languages are lofty indeed 

 compared with any signs which are made by even the 

 highest animals. The tales we read about the mental 

 defects of savages are hardly, if at all, more trustworthy 

 than anecdotes about the psychical powers of animals. 

 Love of the marvellous, credulity, exaggeration, and, 

 above all, hasty and inconclusive inferences, abound 

 in both — as Mr. Tylor has shown us again and again. 



Mr. Romanes tells us, f as one example, that " the 

 Society Islanders have separate words for dog's-tail, 

 bird's-tail, sheep's-tail, etc., but no word for tail itself — 

 i.e.y tail in general." This is no great loss. We have 

 one, and ours is wrong and hopelessly misleading. J To 

 use the same term, as we do, for what we call the 

 " tails " of a peacock, a monkey, and a lobster, is to be 



* p. 349- t p. 350- 



:j: See our lecture on "Tails," reported in Nature of Sept. 25 

 and Oct. 2, 1879. 



