BOOK XI. cxH. 269-271 



the nostrils, but through the nostrils it emits a harsh 

 trumpet sound. In oxen alone the iowing of the 

 females is louder, but in every other kind of animal 

 the females' voice is not so loud as that of the males, 

 even (in the case of the human race) those that have 

 been castrated. The infant gives no sound at birth 

 until it emerges entirely from the womb. It begins 

 to talk when a year old ; but Croesus had a son who 

 spoke at six months and while still at the rattle stage, 

 a portent that brought the whole of that realm to 

 downfall. Infants that began to speak quicker are 

 slower in starting to vvalk. The voice gets stronger 

 at fourteen, but it gets weaker in old age ; and it 

 does not aher more often in any other animal. 



There are other facts besides about the voice that Acoustics. 

 deserve mention. It is absorbed by the sawdust or 

 sand that is thrown down on the floor in the theati-e 

 orchestras," and similarly in a place surrounded by 

 rough walls, and it is also deadened by empty 

 casks. Also it runs along a straight or concave 

 surface of wall and carries words although spoken 

 in a low tone to the other end, if no unevenness of 

 the surface hinders it. In a human being the voice characteT 

 constitutes a large part of the external personahty : "^"'"'^**' 

 we recognise a man by it before we see him just in 

 the same way as we recognise him with our eyes ; 

 and there are as many varieties of voices as there are 

 mortals in the world, and a person's voice is as dis- 

 tinctive as his face. This is the source of the dif- 

 ference between all the races and all the languages 

 all over the world, and of all the tunes and modulations 

 and inflexions, but before all things of the power of 

 expressing the thoughts that has made us dilferent 

 from the beasts, and has also caused another dis- 



603 



