The Descent of Man

subject (35. 'Journal of Anthropological Society,'
Oct. 1870, p. clv. See also the several later chapters
in Sir John Lubbock's 'Prehistoric Times,'
2nd ed. 1869, which contain an admirable account
of the habits of savages.), "doubts whether
even amongst the nations of Western Europe,
intimately connected as they are by close
and frequent intercourse, the music of the one
is interpreted in the same sense by the others.
By travelling eastwards we find that there is
certainly a different language of music. Songs
of joy and dance- accompaniments are no longer,
as with us, in the major keys, but always in
the minor." Whether or not the half-human
progenitors of man possessed, like the singing
gibbons, the capacity of producing, and therefore
no doubt of appreciating, musical notes,
we know that man possessed these faculties at
a very remote period. M. Lartet has described
two flutes made out of the bones and horns of
the reindeer, found in caves together with flint
tools and the remains of extinct animals. The