REASON AND LANGUAGE. 139 



ing deaf-mutes, precisely as travellers in a foreign 

 country are rejoiced to meet persons speaking their 

 language." 



Gesture-language is declared* by Mr. Tylor to be 

 " substantially the same all the world over," and Colonel 

 Mallery has affirmed t that " the sign-language of the 

 Indians is not, properly speaking, one language ; but it 

 and the gesture-systems of deaf-mutes, and of all peoples, 

 constitute one language — the gesture-speech of man- 

 kind — of which each system is a dialect." This shows 

 plainly how all men are of one intellectual nature. 



Mr. Romanes also gives % at length a very in- 

 teresting account of a conversation held between two 

 Indians of different races, and carried on entirely in 

 gesture-language. It began with the questions and 

 answers : " Which of the North-Eastern tribes is yours ? 

 Mountain river men. How many days from Mountain 

 river? Moon new and full three times." The dialogue 

 was continued through a great variety of detail. 



A deaf-mute at Washington is said § to have related 

 to some Indians that " when he was a boy, he went to a 

 melon-field, tapped several melons, finding them to be 

 green or unripe ; finally, reaching a good one, he took 

 his knife, cut a slice and ate it. A man made his 

 appearance on horseback, entered the path on foot, 

 found the cut melon, and, detecting the thief, threw the 

 melon towards him, hitting him in the back, whereupon 

 he ran away crying. The man mounted and rode off in 

 an opposite direction." There is also given || " the 



* See p. 107. t See p. in. :{: p. 108. 



§ p. 112. II p. 113. 



