222 CAN THE LOWER ANIMALS CONVERSE ? 



emphasis laid on any one of these six words. We can 

 form no estimate of the degree in which the ' dumb 

 animals' use emphasis in vocal communication with 

 their kind. 



Pitch — musical pitch — is even more subtle than 

 emphasis ; it is equally significant, but not so easy to 

 define. To do so, I must quote again from Sir Edward 

 Tylor: 



'Europeans, while using modulation of musical pitch as 

 affecting the force of words in a sentence, know nothing of 

 making it alter the dictionary meaning of a word. But 

 this device is known elsewhere, especially in south-east Asia, 

 where rises and falls of tone, to some extent like those 

 which serve us in conveying emphasis, question and answer, 

 etc., actually give different signification. Thus in Siamese, 

 hd=to seek, Ao = pestilence, h(i,=&ve. The consequence is that 

 ... to sing a Siamese song to a European tune makes the 

 meaning of the syllables alter according to their rise and fall 

 in pitch, and turns their sense into the wildest nonsense.' ^ 



Now one cannot listen to the voices of beasts and 

 birds without detecting constant modulation of pitch, 

 and it must be assumed that there is, besides, much 

 modulation whereof our hearing is not sensible. In 

 discussing the vocal means of communication possessed 

 by the lower animals (including insects) we should bear 

 in mind the limitations of our sense of hearing. Even 

 the normal human auditory chamber receives no impres- 

 sion from sound-waves that may affect the hearing of 

 other animals. I have in mind a young man whose 

 hearing was, and is, perfect for all practical purposes, 

 but who has never been able to hear the cry of a 



^ Primitive (fulture, vol. i. p. 169. 



