V&R is a huge fan of the idea of Scheler and Caillois that the universal grammar of nature is pantomime. Schopenhauer hints at something similar though in a more conflictual register.
In Tolkien’s story Beren and Luthien, Tinuviel dresses Beren up as a cat, “and she teaches him how to sit and sprawl, to step and bound and trot in the semblance of a cat.” The disguise is so Beren can trick his way into the presence of Lord Melkor and take back a Silmaril that he stole from the Elves.
Tinuviel laments that whilst Beren looks the part he just cannot mimic the sound of a cat: “we must put up with that, said she, and thou hast the air of a very noble cat if thou but hold they tongue.”
