Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/154

140 whit, and to another jug, jug, jug; at least a part of his song is to some ocy, ocy, and to another "Fie, fie! fie! now would she cry; Tereu, Tereu! by and by." So in Chinese also, to denote the call of one bird, for example, we find in several cases a number of very different forms of expression.

The magpie calls (ming 鳴) cha-cha, or, as others hear, k‘ah-k‘ah. This bird is called in Mandarin hsi-chio, which is interpreted as meaning Bird of Joy (喜鵲), but it is probably imitative in origin. In Foochow the magpie is called k‘ah-ch‘iu, the bird which k‘ah-k‘ah's. The Cantonese hear the owl hoot lum-lum and so they call him lum-lum or the lum-lum-tseuk (bird), the Ulula. It is probable that lum-lum, which is purely colloquial, is extended to other birds which also make night hideous. The oriole's call is li-liu uttered slowly and repeated ad lib., and hence comes one of the bird's names, huang (yellow)-li-liu (黃栗留). But some reproduce his call by kiao-kiao, and others by other sounds. Further, the learned say that the Bamboo Partridge (Bambusicola) cries ni-hua-hua, ni-hua-hua (泥滑滑), and from this fact it gets one of its names. But to the country people this bird says in its call hing-pu-té-ko-ko (行不得哥哥), hing-pu-té-ko-ko, that is, "can't get on, elder brother," and this term is used as a familiar name for him. Man brings an ear for all he hears in the world of nature. So according to his mood he finds pleasure or sorrow in the chirruping and chattering of creatures which chirrup and chatter from an inner impulse. But we also know that the children of nature have been taught by her to utter distinct and different sounds when excited by fear, pain or delight.

To one man, or at one time, the swallow may "pipe and trill and cheep and twitter twenty million loves." To another, or on a different occasion, it may chatter (tsap-tsep) as it wheels airy circles in an agony of despair. To the Chinese also the swallow, or rather the house-martin, is sometimes distressed, and chatters chiao-chiao or chow-chow; or it merely twitters yi-yi, and so tells its proper name yi or yi-yen (𩾐 or 乙燕).