CHAPTER XII. 



LANGUAGE IN OTHER ANIMALS. 



IN contempt, pity, or ignorance or perhaps under the influ- 

 ence of all these feelings or conditions man is in the habit 

 of designating the lower animals ' poor dumb creatures.' The 

 fact is, however, that they possess a language much more 

 comprehensive than, and quite as eloquent as, his own 

 much more generally intelligible than is his verbal language, 

 which is merely one form of language or expression that 

 only with which he, in his pride and prejudice, is most 

 familiar. 



Certain animals are not absolutely unacquainted with 

 verbal language with speech as is shown in another 

 chapter ; but they have a very affluent language of sound, 

 look, and action, capable of expressing not only emotion but 

 ideas or thoughts, plans or intentions, wishes or require- 

 ments. Houzeau points out the inferiority of the language 

 of certain savages to that of various animals, and Darwin 

 shows the superior expressiveness to mere words of the in- 

 articulate cries, which, along with feature-play, eye or look 

 language, and gesture or attitude, are common to man with 

 other animals. 



There is sometimes a superiority in eloquence in favour of 

 the lower animals as regards the mode of expression of the 

 same emotion for instance, of love and humility in the dog. 



Man falls into many grave or absurd errors from his 

 ignorance of animal language, which language naturally 

 becomes intelligible just in proportion as it is studied. He 

 gives much pains in his youth to the study of the languages 

 of ancient Greece or Home, or of modern Germany and 



