History of Monsters. 66

voice.

The voice of an infant is never heard before it emerges from the womb, but it begins to wail the moment it comes forth. Because of this, the Greek word *bambazo* was perhaps formed in imitation of a crying child. When a child begins to speak inarticulately, the Greeks express this with the word *bambaino*; it is likely from this that the name *bambino* is derived, a term used by the people of Bologna to describe a babbling toddler. Indeed, infants only begin to speak around the age of one, though the voice later strengthens in the thirteenth year and becomes thinner as old age approaches. Although some believe that voice belongs properly to man alone—since voice is air struck by breath, leading to the idea that words (*verba*) are like lashes (*verbera*) that come only from the human mouth—the term "voice" nevertheless signifies everything that makes a sound and applies to other animals as well. The word is derived from *boao*, meaning "to shout." Therefore, while other creatures emit a voice, none but man can truly speak. It does not contradict this to point out various birds, like the magpie and the parrot, which produce human-like sounds. As the saying goes regarding the parrot: "The parrot brings forth human speech with its voice." And of the magpie, we read: "I, the talkative magpie, greet you as master with a clear voice; if you did not see me, you would deny I was a bird."

Since the aforementioned animals produce such a voice through training, their voice cannot be an expression of the intentions of their minds, as these animals lack reason. Human voice, by contrast, is articulate and is called speech (*loquela*) because it expresses the various intentions of the human soul. For this reason, Cicero used to say that there are as many shifts in the voice as there are in the mind. Thus, according to Erasmus, there is no animal whose voice is as varied as man’s. And although it is said there are as many voices and languages as nations, the intentions of all nations flow toward a single purpose.

We believe that the variety of human voices and the origin of speech arose from the fact that, after the universal flood, the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Armenia. Then Noah, having stepped out onto the land with his kin, restored the human race in a short span of time through divine favor. Later, so that the whole world might be inhabited again, he distributed his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons to various regions of the earth as if into so many colonies. First, he sent Esennius to Egypt; Tritamen to Libya and Cyrene; and Japetus Priscus to the rest of Africa. He placed Ganges in charge of East Asia; Sabus, surnamed "The Frankincense-Bearer," in Arabia Felix; Arabum in Arabia Deserta; and Petreius in Arabia Petraea. He settled Canaia in Damascus. In Europe, he appointed King Turiscon to rule from the Tanais to the Rhine. All the sons of Ister and Mesa were joined with him, along with their brothers, stretching from Mount Adula to Mesembria on the Black Sea; under them, Tyrus, Arcadius, and Emacius held Italy. Comerius Gallus Samotes took possession of the Celts, and Jubal the Celtiberians.

This was, therefore, a brief and premature separation of the sons from their progenitors, whose rites and customs they had not yet fully absorbed; this was the primary cause of all diversity. Since Ham, because of the mockery he showed his father, was forced to flee with his wife and children to that part of Arabia which later took its name from him, he passed on no sacred rites to his descendants, having received none from his father. Thus it happened that, over time, they fell into inextricable errors. In this way, the voice, speech, or language was varied, and the knowledge of the true God and all worship perished.