MAN-MUSICAL POWERS. 565 



appreciating musical notes, we know that man possessed these 

 faculties at a very remote period. M. Lartet has described two 

 flutes, made out of the bones and horns of the reindeer, found in 

 caves together with flint tools and the remains of extinct animals. 

 The arts of singing and of dancing are also very ancient, and are 

 now practiced by all or nearly all the lowest races of man. Poetry, 

 which may be considered as the offspring of song, is likewise so 

 ancient, that many persons have felt astonished that it should 

 have arisen during the earliest ages of which we have any record. 

 We see that the musical faculties, which are not wholly deficient 

 in any race, are capable of prompt and high development, for Hot- 

 tentots and Negroes have become excellent musicians, although in 

 their native countries they rarely practice anything that we 

 should consider music. Schweinfurth, however, was pleased with 

 some of the simple melodies which he heard in the interior of 

 Africa. But there is nothing anomalous in the musical faculties 

 lying dormant in man: some species of birds which never natur- 

 ally sing, can without much difficulty be taught to do so; thus a 

 house-sparrow has learnt the song of a linnet. As these two 

 species are closely allied, and belong to the order of Insessores, 

 which includes nearly all the singing-birds in the world, it is pos- 

 sible that a progenitor of the sparrow may have been a songster. 

 It is more remarkable that parrots, belonging to a group distinct 

 from the Insessores, and having differently constructed vocal or- 

 gans, can be taught not only to speak, but to pipe or whistle tunes 

 invented by man, so that they must have some musical capacity. 

 Nevertheless it would be very rash to assume that parrots are 

 descended from some ancient form which was a songster. Many 

 cases could be advanced of organs and instincts originally adapted 

 for one purpose, having been utilized for some distinct purpose.'" 

 Hence the capacity for high musical development, which the sav- 

 age races of man possess, may be due either to the practice by our 

 semi-human progenitors of some rude form of music, or simply to 

 their having acquired the proper vocal organs for a different pur- 

 pose. But in this latter case we must assume, as in the above in- 

 stance of parrots, and as seems to occur with many animals, that 

 they already possessed some sense of melody. 



'" Since this chapter was printed, I have seen a valuable article by 

 Mr. Chauncey Wright ('North Amer. Review,' Oct. 1870, page 293), 

 who, in discussing the above subject, remarks, "There are many con- 

 "sequences of the ultimate laws or uniformities of nature, through 

 "which the acquisition of one useful power will bring with it many 

 "resulting advantages as well as limiting disadvantages, actual or pos- 

 "sible, which the principle of utility may not have comprehended in 

 ■ its action." As I have attempted to show in an early chapter of this 

 worlc, this principle has an important bearing on the acqaisition by 

 man of some of his mental charabteristics. 



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