MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



bodied in a muscular act and motion, and in this way 

 thought had its concrete representation. The same 

 results would, as far as we know, be obtained from 

 others in the same unhappy conditions as Laura 

 Bridgman. 



It is therefore clear that primitive language was 

 only a vocal and individual sign of material images, 

 and it was for a long while restricted to these con- 

 crete limits. Since the vocal signs of the relations 

 of things are less easily expressed, these relations 

 were at first set forth by gestures, by a movement of 

 the whole person, and especially of the hands and 

 face. This preliminary action is helped by the 

 imitative faculty with which children and uncultured 

 peoples are more especially endowed, of which we 

 have also instances in the higher animals nearest to 

 man. The negroes imitate the gestures, clothing, and 

 customs of white men in the most extraordinary and 

 grotesque manner, and so do the natives of New 

 Zealand. The Kamschatkans have a great power of 

 imitating other men and animals, and this is also the 

 case with the inhabitants of Vancouver. Hernclon was 

 astonished by the mimic arts of the Brazilian Indians, 

 and Wilkes made the same observation on the Pata- 

 gonians. This faculty is still more apparent in the 

 lower races. Many travellers have spoken of the 

 extraordinary tendency to imitation among the Fue- 

 gians ; and, according to Monat, the Andaman 

 islanders are not less disposed to mimicry and irnita- 



