T^iE TRANSITION IN THE RACE. 3C9 



import. Whether the denotative stage of language in the ape 

 was first reached by articulation, or (as I think is very much 

 more probable) by vocal sounds of other kinds assisted by 

 gestures and grimace, is similarly immaterial. In either case 

 the advance of intelligence which would thus have been 

 secured would in time have reacted upon the sign-making 

 faculty, and so have led to the e.xtension of the vocabulary, 

 both as to sounds and gestures. Sooner or later the vocal 

 signs — assisted out by gestures and ever leading to a gradual 

 advance of intelligence — would have become more or less 

 conventional, and so, in the presence of suitable anatomical 

 and social conditions, articulate. Thus far I cannot see 

 anything to stumble over, when we remember all that has 

 been said upon the conventional signs which are used by the 

 more intelligent of our domesticated animals, and even by 

 talking birds.* 



This is the hypothesis which is countenanced by Mr. 

 Darwin in his Descent of Man. He says : — " I cannot doubt 

 that language owes its origin to the imitation and modifica- 

 tion of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, 

 and man's own instinctive cries, aided by signs and 

 gestures. . . . Since monkeys certainly understand much 

 that is said to them by man, and, when wild, utter signal- 

 cries of danger to their fellows ; and since fowls give distinct 

 warnings for danger on the ground, or in the sky from 

 hawks (both, as well as a third cry, intelligible to dogs),t 

 may not some unusually wise ape-like animal have imitated 

 the growl of a beast of prey, and thus told his fellow-monkeys 

 the nature of the expected danger } This would have been a 

 first step in the formation of a language." % 



• " If there once existed creatures above the apes and below m.nn, who were 

 extirpated by primitive man as his especial rivals in the struggle for existence, or 

 became extinct in any other way, there is no difficulty in suppo>ing them to have 

 possessed forms of speech, more rudimentary and im|icrfcct than ours" (Professor 

 Whitney, Art. Philoli\ij; Ency. Brit., vol. xviii., p. 769). 



t Houzeau gives a verj* curious account of his observations on this subject in 

 his Fcuulth MenlnUs da .Animaux, torn, ii., p. 348. 



X Descent of Man, p. 87. 



