Excerpt from The Story of Minstrelsy
An inquiry into the origin of Minstrelsy would necessitate a consideration of the earliest beginnings of Folksong, the invention of which, if not anterior to, is in all likelihood coeval with the origin of Speech. But men may have sung before speech was vouchsafed them. The animal world gives the thought a curious impulse:
"Hark! hark ! the lark at Heaven's gate sings."
Man's highest Te Deum can do little more.
The curious may discover some pleasure in tracing the faint-almost illegible-characters which stand for the first records of music. Such an enterprise, however interesting, is not within the scope of our book. "Language," says Max Muller, "begins where interjections end. There is as much difference between a real word, such as to laugh and the interjection ha! ha!
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