214 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



by children ; and from the early age at which 

 they begin to employ it, the sound Language is 

 clearly one of the very first forms of speech. All 

 a child's words are of course gathered through the 

 sense of hearing, but if it can itself pick up a 

 word direct from the object, it will use it long 

 before it elects to repeat the conventional name 

 taught it by its nurse. The child who says moo 

 for cow, or bow-wow for dog, or tick-tick for watch, 

 or puff-puff for train, is an authority on the origin 

 of human speech. Its father, when he talks of 

 the hum of machinery or the boom of the cannon, 

 when he calls champagne fizz or a less aristocratic 

 beverage pop^ is following in the wake of the in- 

 ventors of Language. Among savage peoples, and 

 especially those encountering the first rush of new 

 things and thoughts brought them by the advanc- 

 ing wave of civilization, word-making is still going 

 on ; and wherever possible the favourite principle 

 seems to be that of sound.^ 



^ Among the Coral Islands of the Pacific the savages every- 

 where speak cf the white residents in New Caledonia as the 

 Wee-wee men, or Wee-wees. Cannibals on a dozen different 

 islands, speaking as many languages, have all this name in 

 common. New Caledonia is a French Penal Settlement, 

 containing thousands of French convicts, and one's first crude 

 thought is that the Wee-wees are so named from their size. 

 A moment's reflection, however, shows that it is taken from 

 their sounds — that in fact we have here a very pretty example 



