On the character of the voice in the various nations of Asia and Africa, contrasted with those of Europe / by Sir George Duncan Gibb.

  • Gibb, Sir George Duncan, 1821-1876.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the character of the voice in the various nations of Asia and Africa, contrasted with those of Europe / by Sir George Duncan Gibb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    not like to advance. This cave of Cacus, that loud voice pre- sented to our minds something phantastic. Finding that we remained silent and motionless, the inhabitant of this sort of vent-hole of Erebus rose, and came to the threshold. He was neither a devil nor a ghost, but simply a Mongol Tartar, who, the night before, having been surprised by the storm, had fled to this cave, where he had passed the night” (vol. i, p. 181). In Tartary, the women lead a very independent life, riding out on horseback at pleasure, and visiting each other from tent to tent. Differing from the “ soft languishing physiognomy of the Chinese women, the Tartar woman presents in her bearing and manners a power and force well in accordance with her active life and nomad habits, and her attire augments the effect of her masculine, haughty mien” (vol. i, p. 187). The voice of the Tartar woman is not inferior to that of the men, in power, at any rate, if we may judge from the behaviour of an innkeeper's wife, who for her obstinacy received a for- midable box on the ear from her husband, which sent her into a corner, screaming at the pitch of her voice (p. 291, vol. i). The following picture of the Mongols, as distinguished from the Tartars, in the words of M. Hue, cannot but be interesting here :—“ The Mongol has a flat face, with prominent cheek- bones, the chin short and retiring, the forehead sunken; the eyes small and oblique, of a yellow tint, as though full of bile; the hair black and rugged, the beard scanty; the skin of a deep brown, and extremely coarse. The Mongol is of middle height; but his great leathern boots and large sheep-skin robe, seem to take away from his height, and make him appear di- minutive and stumpy. To complete this portrait, we must add a heavy and ponderous gait, and a harsh, shrill, discordant language, full of frightful aspirates. Notwithstanding this rough and unprepossessing exterior, the disposition of the Mongol is full of gentleness and good-nature : he passes sud- denly from the most rollicking and extravagant gaiety to a state of melancholy, which is by no means disagreeable” (vol. i, p. 257). I would draw particular attention to the “harsh, shrill, discordant language, full of frightful aspirates.” The Lamas of Thibet are not inferior to their brethren, the