212 Evolution and Adaptation 



ence to his daily habits of life, they must be ranked amongst 

 the most mysterious with which he is endowed.'' 



Man is supposed to have possessed this faculty of song 

 from a very remote time, and even the most savage races 

 make musical sounds, although we do not enjoy their music, 

 or they ours. 



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

 deficient in any race, are capable of prompt and high de- 

 velopment, for Hottentots and Negroes have become excel- 

 lent musicians, although in their native countries they rarely 

 practise anything that we should consider music. Hence the 

 capacity for high musical development, which the savage 

 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 purpose. But in this latter case we must assume, 

 as in the above instance of parrots, and as seems to occur 

 with many animals, that they already possessed some sense 

 of melody." 



Darwin sums up the evidence in the two following state- 

 ments, the insufficiency of which to explain the phenomena 

 is I think only too obvious : " All these facts in respect to 

 music and impassioned speech become intelligible to a certain 

 extent, if we assume that musical tones and rhythm were used 

 by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, 

 when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but 

 by the strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph. 

 From the deeply laid principle of inherited associations, 

 musical tones in this case would be likely to call up vaguely 

 and indefinitely the strong emotions of a long past age." 

 Thus the difficulty is shifted to the shoulders of our long 

 lost savage ancestors ; or even, in fact, to our simian fore- 

 fathers, as the following paragraph indicates : — 



"As the males of several quadrumanous animals have 

 their vocal organs much more developed than in the females, 



