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3. Savage men also have th e power of finding out the
direction of sounds by moving th eir ears ; and travellers
in Australia relate how th e Bushmen, squatting by
night round the camp fire, constantly turn their eyes
and ears about, suspicious of every sight and sound.
We have no need of being so continually on the
alert, for we are not always going about in terror
of our lives ; and after many generations of disuse,
the muscles have lost their power of movement.
Most of us, however, have tiny ear muscles still left,
and one or two in the class will probably be able to
use th em so as to cause a very slight movement of
the ears .
4. You will hardly believe that, owing to th e want
of this power, you cannot tell , without th e help of
your eyes, whether a sound comes fr om behind or
from the front. Bandage your eyes, and ask two
friends to stand one in front of you and the other
behind. Let one of them click two pennies together,
and you will not be able to say which fri end made
the click. You will generally think that the sound
comes from behind; for we are so accustomed to see
any sounding body which is situated in front of us,
that when our eyes ar e bandaged and we do not
see it, we are deeeived into thinking that it must be
behind us.
5. If an insect should crawl into th e tunnel of
your ear, it would not be able to go very far . At
a distance of less than an inch , it would be stopped by
a thin partition, called the drum of th e ear. Beyond
this partition there is a chamber called the middle
ear, and this communicates with the back of the
throat by a long passage.