viii THE HUMAN EACES 345 



Siamese, Abyssinians, Malays, Peruvians, and the ancient Egyp- 

 tians) ; (2) nomads (Mongolians, Arabs). 



(c} Civilised races, who have a more or less phonetic written 

 language and abundance of literature (Europeans and North 

 Americans, etc.). We do not propose to go deeply into the 

 interesting study of ethnical linguistics, but merely to touch 

 on the more important points which are of interest to the 

 physiologist. 



We would first point out that language is not the only means 

 by which men can understand each other and interchange ideas. 

 Deniker divides the means by which man attains this end into 

 three groups : (a) means of communication at a short distance 

 (gestures and words, mimic and phonetic language} ; (b} at a 

 relatively great distance (signals}; (c) means serving for the 

 communication of thought, irrespective of the limitations of time 

 and space (writing}. 



Many gestures are natural and common to all; every one 

 understands them because they are identical with the movements 

 made in the processes to be expressed thereby (gestures indicat- 

 ing eating, drinking, etc.). Other gestures both more important 

 and more varied are real conventional symbolical motions, in- 

 dicating special psychic conditions, and are therefore only under- 

 stood by those who have attached that meaning to them. 



The simplest and commonest sign of this kind is that made 

 with the head to express affirmation or negation. It is, however, 

 a fact that different peoples attach opposite meanings to this 

 sign; Northern and Central Europeans, the inhabitants of the 

 Adaman Islands, the Ainus and some Hindus, nod the head to 

 express affirmation and shake it to express negation ; amongst 

 other peoples Arabs, Botocudis, negroes shaking the head is a 

 sign of affirmation, and raising it that of negation ; Abyssinians 

 and Neapolitans raise the head and eyebrows as a sign of negation, 

 whilst the Syrian Arabs and the people of Noya-Kurumba express 

 the same meaning by raising the head and clicking the tongue. 

 Italians and other Mediterranean peoples express negation and 

 many other psychical conditions by means of movements of the 

 upper limbs. This use of gesticulation with the head, upper 

 limbs, or whole body in order to express different psychical 

 conditions or to give added force to their verbal expression is not 

 peculiar to these races; Mallery considers that the language of 

 signs has attained its highest development amongst the North 

 American Indians (a race which is unfortunately dying out 

 rapidly, owing to the influence of the whites and their civilisation), 

 where it may be compared to that used by deaf-mutes who have 

 not learned the lip-language. At the time when this language 

 was most in use, the Indians expressed by its help, not merely 

 common and proper nouns, but also verbs, pronouns, and other 



