no PRIMEVAL MAN. 



and Turanian races."* The principle on 

 which the evidence of language is interpreted 

 is very simple. The sounds or words by 

 which men designate things are for the most 

 part arbitrary, and therefore conventional. 

 The sign and the thing signified have no 

 natural or necessary connection. The names 

 of a very few animals may be imitations of 

 their voice. No argument, for example, could 

 be founded on the word Cuckoo being used 

 by the most diverse tribes to designate a bird 

 which sounds these two syllables in its cry. 

 But such cases are very rare even in the 

 names of beasts. Wherever the same thing is 

 denoted by the same word, and where there 

 is no natural connection between them, there 



• "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i. pp. 63, 64. 



