THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 169 



tudes of our ordinary words may have thus been made 

 from real sounds, but have now lost beyond recovery 

 the traces of their first expressiveness." ^ In the 

 Chinuli: language of tlie West Coast of America, to cite 

 a few more of Tylor's instances, a tavern is called a 

 " heehee-house^'' that is a laughter house, or an amuse- 

 ment house, the word for amusement being taken by 

 an obvious association from the laughter which it ex- 

 cites. How indirect a derivation may be is illustrated 

 by the word which the Basutos of South Africa use 

 for courtier. The buzz of a certain fly resembles the 

 sound ntsi-iitsi^ and they apply this word to those who 

 buzz round the chief as a fly buzzes round a piece of 

 meat. As every one knows " papa " for father, is 

 evolved into papa the pope, and " abba " the Hebrew 

 for father into abbot. For plurals, a doubling of the 

 word is often used, but no doubt at first quantity was 

 expressed by gestures or by numbering on the fingers. 

 " Orang " is the Malay for Man, " Orang-orang " for 

 men while " Orang-utan " is wild man. Verbs are 

 formed on the same principle as nouns. In the 

 Tecuna language of Brazil the verb to sneeze is 

 haitsclm., while the Welsh for a sneeze is tis. Other 

 verbs which came to have large and comprehensive 

 meanings arose out of the simple activities and oc- 

 cupations of primitive life. Thus the first verb in the 

 Bible, the Hebrew " bara " now meaning create, was 

 originally used for cutting or hewing, the first step in 

 making things. In the Borneo language of Africa, the 

 verb " to make " comes from the word tando., to weave. 

 In English, "to suffer" meant to bear as a burden, 

 and to " apprehend an idea " was originally to " catch 

 1 Tylor, Anthropology ^ p. 127. 



