5G4 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



mouy is a late invention. We are more concerned with melody, 

 and here again, according to Helmholtz, it is intelligible why the 

 notes of our musical scale are Tised. The ear analyzes all sounds 

 into their component "simple vibrations," although we are not 

 conscious of this analysis. In a musical note the lowest in pitch 

 of these is generally predominant, and the others which are less 

 marked are the octave, the twelfth, the second octave, &c., all 

 harmonies of the fundamental predominant note; any two notes 

 of our scale have many of these harmonic over-tones in common. 

 It seems pretty clear then, that if an animal always wished to sing 

 precisely the same song, he would guide himself by sounding those 

 notes in succession, which possess many over- tones in common — 

 that is, he would choose for his song, notes which belong to our 

 musical scale. 



But if it be further asked why musical tones in a certain order 

 and rhythm give man and other animals pleasure, we can no 

 more give the reason than for the pleasantness of certain tastes 

 and smells. That they do give pleasure of some kind to animals, 

 we may infer from their being produced during the season of 

 courtship by many insects, spiders, fishes, amphibians, and birds; 

 for unless the females were able to appreciate such sounds and 

 were excited or charmed by them, the persevering" efforts of the 

 males, and the complex structures often possessed by them alone, 

 would be useless; and this it is impossible to believe. 



Human song is generally admitted to be the basis or origin of 

 instrumental music. As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity 

 of producing musical notes are faculties of the least use to man 

 in reference to his daily habits of life, they must be ranked 

 amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed. They 

 are present, though in a very rude condition, in men of all races, 

 even the most savage; but so different is the taste of the several 

 races, that our music gives no pleasure to savages, and their music 

 is to us in most cases hideous and unmeaning. Dr. Seemann, in 

 some interesting remarks on this subject,''^ "doubts whether even 

 "amongst the nations of Western Europe, intimately connected 

 "as they are by close and frequent intercourse, the music of the 

 "one is interpreted in the same sense by the others. By traveling 

 "eastwards we find that there is certainly a different language of 

 "music. Songs of joy and dance-accompaniments are no longer, 

 "as with us, in the major keys, but always in the minor." Whether 

 or not the half-human progenitors of man possessed, like the sing- 

 ing gibbons, the capacity of producing, and therefore no doubt of 



'' 'Journal of Anthropolog. Soc' Oct. 1870, p. civ. See, also, the 

 several later chapters in Sir John Lubbock's 'Prehistoric Times,' sec- 

 ond edition, 1869, which contain an admirable account of the habits of 

 savages. 



