TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION H. 907 



rather is to increase the number of free vertebris in the lumbar region by detach- 

 ment, of the upper sacral vertebra. The diflerences alluded to have reference 

 mainly to the ^reat freedom of the lumbar region in man compared with that in 

 the gorilla, and to the greater thoracic development in the gorilla. 



3. On the Prohahle Derivation of some Characteristic Sounds in Certain 

 Languages from Cries or Noises made by Animals. By J. Mansel 

 Weale. 



The atithor relates how he first noticed the resemblance between the lullaby 

 of a native voer-looper and the croaking of frogs at Boouiplatz, Orange River 

 Free State. Later he was often puzzled in KafFraria by the resemblance between 

 the sounds of distant Kafir dance-music and that made by the frogs in vleys or 

 ponds. He attempted to analyse this impression, and came to the conclusion 

 that it principally arose from the rhythmic cadence, combined with the hand- 

 clappings, mingled with the vocal sounds and drum-beat. These conclusions led 

 him to collect specimens of frogs from a small vley. Out of these two very 

 minute species gave out loud rapping sounds when confined in a jar ; and sub- 

 sequently, although extremely common in Kaifraria, they were described as new 

 by M. Boulenger in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) catalogue of Batrachia 

 salientia, 1882. These, as well as the other species collected, belong to African 

 groups widely distributed, especially through the tropics. About the same time 

 (1864) he also arrived at the conclusion that the models of the so-called bee-hive 

 huts of the natives were the termitaria, or white ants' nests, as they are commonly 

 called ; that possibly primaeval man sheltered himself in deserted termitaria, 

 adapting to them a roof of boughs or leaves, such as the anthropoid apes are 

 known to construct. 



Hence it would seem probable that all those primitive races constructing 

 circular-planned dwellings started from the tropics, and that their music and 

 language were to a large extent based on their interpretation of the natural 

 sounds around them, and more particularly on the frog-concert — Nkuquak being, 

 as he later found in Efik, the Old Kalabar word for a concert, and quak, to clap 

 hands, beat a drum. 



The author quotes Burchell, Schweinfurth, Winterbottom, and other observant 

 and careful travellers for descriptions of frog and native music, contrasting and 

 comparing them together. He further shows that, so far as the evidence he has 

 collected goes, neither monkeys, anthropoid apes, nor babies, European or African, 

 clap hands until taught — that it is, in fact, an acquired habit distinct from the 

 stamping of feet. The arms and legs of children when young are thrown upwards 

 and outwards, the hands striving to grip and the feet to push. In North Euro- 

 pean nations, more especially ourselves, feet and sticks are still often iised to 

 accompany music, but hand-clapping only as applause. Similarly castanets, bones, 

 and rattles, except in what are termed nigger minstrelsies, are rare in use, and, 

 before these last were introduced from America, confined principally to ballets. 

 The author notices that they seem to commend themselves to certain classes, which 

 regard operas and theatres with dislike. 



In Southern Europe, throughout Africa and the East, as also with all savage 

 tribes, they are common, and form an essential part of the music. 



He also traces the oKoKvyr) of the Greeks, the Cybele, Hestia, and Osiris chants, 

 the modern ululuing of Cairo, and the Alleluia Chorus to these animals, quoting 

 Aristotle, Carl Engel, and others. 



Next he notices the mode of beating an accompaniment to the Paddlers' song 

 In Africa and America, and its imitation of the frog, this beating of time being 

 also sometimes accompanied by a drum among the Kroomen. In support of this 

 he quotes E. Lauder, Winwood Reade, Harrison, Rankin, Schomburgk, and 

 im-Thurn, showing that the imitation is so perfect that persons are again and again 

 deceived by it, as the author states to have been at times the case with himself in 

 Kaflraria. 



He next calls attention to certain vocal sounds of an iaii or iaii kind, their 



