INTERCOMMUNICATION 195 
‘What makes the old sow grunt and the piggies sing and 
whine ?” said a little girl to a portly substantial farmer. “I 
suppose they does it for company, my dear,” was the simple 
and cautious reply. So far as appearances went, that farmer 
looked as guiltless of theories as man could be. And yet he 
gave terse expression to what may perhaps be regarded as the 
most satisfactory hypothesis as to the primary purpose of 
animal sounds. They are a means by which each indicates to 
others the fact of his comforting presence; and they still, to 
a large extent, retain their primary function. The chirping 
of grasshoppers, the song of the cicada, the piping of frogs in 
the pool, the bleating of lambs at the hour of dusk, the lowing 
of contented cattle, the call-notes of the migrating host of 
birds—all these, whatever else they may be, are the reassuring 
social links of sound, the grateful signs of kindred presence. 
Arising thus in close relation to the primitive feelings of social 
sympathy, they would naturally be called into play with special 
force and suggestiveness at times of strong emotional excite- 
ment, and the earliest differentiations would, we may well 
believe, be determined along lines of emotional expression. 
Thus would originate mating cries, male and female after 
their kind; and parental cries more or less differentiated into 
those of parent and offspring, the deeper note of the ewe 
differing little save in pitch and timbre from the bleating of 
her lamb, while the cluck of the hen differs widely from the 
peeping note of the chick in down. Thus, too, would arise 
the notes of anger and combat, of fear and distress, of alarm 
and warning. If we call these the instinctive language of 
emotional expression, we must remember that such “language” 
differs markedly from the “language” of which the sentence 
is the recognized unit. 
It is, however, not improbable that, through association in 
the conscious situation, sounds, having their origin in emotional 
expression and evoking in others like emotional states, may 
acquire a new value in suggesting, for example, the presence of 
particular enemies. An example will best serve to indicate my 
meaning. “In the early dawn of a grey morning,” says Mr. 
