2 ON THE LANGUAGE OF SIGNS AMONG 



" ihg on the Chinese sea or Eastern Asia, understand and use 

 " the written Chinese, though not the oral language. About 

 " 200 characters mark the principal objects of nature; these 

 " may be considered as roots of language, in which every other 

 " word or species in a systematic sense is referred to its proper 

 " genus or root. The heart is a genus represented by a curve 

 " line, somewhat of the form of the object, and the species 

 " referable to it, include all the sentiments, passions, and af- 

 " fections, that agitate the human breast, each species being 

 " accompanied by some mark denoting the genus or heart." 

 Now Sir if the commencement of this extract was altered and 

 we were to say " Almost all the Indian nations living between 

 the Mississippi, and the Western American ocean, understand 

 and use the same language by signs, although their respective 

 oral tongues are frequently unknown to each other," the re- 

 mainder of the paragraph would be perfectly descriptive of the 

 organization of this language by signs, and would convey to an 

 adept a full and complete idea of the systematic order which 

 has been observed in its formation. Permit me to refer you 

 to the short and very imperfect list of signs enclosed, where 

 you will find water to be a genus, and rain, snow, ice, hail, 

 hoar-frost, dew, &c. are species represented by signs more or 

 less complex, retaining always the root or genus as the basis 

 of the compound sign. 



We are also informed that " if any uncertainty remains as 

 *' to the meaning of a particular expression, recourse is had to 

 " the ultimate criterion of tracing with the finger in the air or 

 -'* otherwise, the form of the character and thus ascertaining at 

 " once which was meant to be expressed:" here also is a strong 

 analogy between the language and practice of those countries 

 so far separated from each other, for those Western Indians are 

 so habituated to their signs that they never make use of their 

 oral language, without instinctively at the same time tracing 

 in the air all the corresponding signs, which they perform with 

 the rapidity of ordinary conversation. I cannot avoid con- 

 cluding that the custom of the Chinese of sometimes tracing 

 the characters in the air, is a proof that this language by signs 

 was at early periods of time universally used by them and by 

 all the nations of the east coast of Asia; and perhaps if enquiry 



