The "college yells" of the United States and Canada offer an inviting field for study in linguistic atavism and barbaric vocal expression. The _New York World Almanac_ for 1895 contains a list of the "yells" of some three hundred colleges and universities in the United States. Out of this great number, in which there is a plenitude of "Rah! rah! rah!" the following are especially noteworthy:-- _Benzonia:_ Kala, kala, kala! Sst, Boom, Gah! Benzo, Benzon-iah! Whooo! _Buchtel:_ Ye-ho! Ye-hesa! Hisa! Wow wow! Buchtel! _Dartmouth:_ Wah, who, wah! wah who wah! da-da-da, Dartmouth! wah who wah! T-i-g-e-r! _Heidelberg:_ Killi-killick! Rah, rah, Zik, zik! Ha! Ha! Yi! Hoo! Baru! Zoo! Heidelberg! The "yell" of _Ohio Wesleyan University_, "O-wee-wi-wow! Ala-ka-zu-ki-zow! Ra-zi-zi-zow! Viva! Viva! O. W. U.!" is enough to make the good man for whom the institution is named turn uneasily in his grave. The palm must, however, be awarded to the _University of North Dakota_, whose remarkable "yell" is this: "Odz-dzo-dzi! Ri-ri-ri! Hy-ah! Hy-ah! North Dakota! and Sioux War-Cry." Hardly have the ancestors of Sitting Bull and his people suspected the immortality that awaited their ancient slogan. It is curious that the only "yell" set to proper music is that of the girls of _Wellesley College_, who sing their cheer, "Tra la la la, Tra la la la, Tra la la la la la la, W-E-L-L-E-S-L-E-Y, Welles-ley." As is the case with other practices in collegiate life, these "yells" seem to be making their way down into the high and grammar schools, as well as into the private secondary schools, the popularity and excitement of field-sports and games, baseball, foot-ball, etc., giving occasion enough for their frequent employment. Here fall also the spontaneous shouts and cries of children at work and at play, the _Ki-yah!_ and others of a like nature whose number is almost infinite. Mr. Charles Ledyard Norton, in his _Political Americanisms_ (New York, 1890), informs us that "the peculiar staccato cheer, 'rah, rah, rah!'" was probably invented at Harvard in 1864. In the Blaine campaign of 1884 it was introduced into political meetings and processions together with "the custom, also borrowed from the colleges, of spelling some temporarily significant catch-word in unison, as, for instance, 'S-o-a-p!' the separate letters being pronounced in perfect time by several hundred voices at once." The same authority thinks that the idea of calling out "Blaine--Blaine--James G. Blaine!" in cadenced measure after the manner of the drill-sergeants, "Left--left--left--right--left!" an idea which had many imitations and elaborations among the members of both the great political parties, can be traced back to the Columbia College students (p. 120). _The Child as an Innovator in Language._