PRIMITIVE PEOPLES AND SIMPLE LANGUAGE. •
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Bagehot's opinion of the propensity to mimicry being strongest in savages and children has been noticed by many travellers, and is corroborated by Darwin in his account of the Fuegians, one of the most degraded of bun tan races (Voyage of the Beagle,' Chap. X.). They could repeat, he says, with perfect correctness each word in a sentence addressed to them, and remembered them for some time. A young girl who had be en brought to England by Captain Fitzroy on a previous voyage, besides acquiring a knowledge of English, picked up Portuguese and Spanish at Rio and Monte Video when left on shore for a short time. Darwin suggests that this faculty may be due to the more practised habits of perception and keener senses common to all men in a savage state.—! am, W. J. IlmeniNu.
Sir, &c., Lyme Regis.
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