334 
SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. 
Pakt II. 
and unmeaning. Dr. Seemann, in some interesting 
remarks on this subject, 31 “doubts whether even amongst 
„ t,le natl0Ils of Western Europe, intimately connected 
<{ as the - v are b > r cIose an -d frequent intercourse, the 
„ ! rU1 ' S ! C of , the one is interpreted in tlie same sense 
„ .7 tlle . others. By travelling eastwards we find that 
there is certainly a different language of music. 
a ' on S s 01 joy and dance-accompaniments are no longer, 
■ as with us, in tlie major keys, but always in the minor.” 
hether or not the half-human progenitors of man pos- 
sessed like the before-mentioned gibbon, the capacity 
of producing, and no doubt of appreciating, musical 
notes we have every reason to believe that man pos- 
sessed these faculties at a very remote period, for 
singing and music are extremely ancient arts, poetry, 
which may be considered as the offspring of soim is 
likewise so ancient that many persons have felt aston- 
ishment that it should have arisen during the earliest 
ages of which we have any record. 
The musical faculties, which are not wholly deficient 
m any race, are capable of prompt and high develop- 
ment as we see with Hottentots and Negroes, who have 
readily become excellent musicians, although they do 
no practise in their native countries anything that we 
should esteem as music. But there is nothing ano- 
malous in this circumstance : some species of birds 
w ic 1 never naturally sing, can without much difficulty 
be taught to perform ; thus the house-sparrow has learnt 
t ie 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 
quite possible or probable that a progenitor of the spar- 
!1 ‘Journal of Ajjfcropolog. See.’ Oct. 1870, p civ See also the 
“!n-l ° n ’ ’ W Ch COntai “ a “ admirable account of the habits 
