144 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



pressed than for the order of its expression. To the 

 question, "Who made God?" he replied, "God made 

 nothing." This was the same construction as he em- 

 ployed for affirming that a shoe. was made by the shoe- 

 njaker, i.e, " The shoe made the shoemaker." Thus, by 

 " God made nothing," he meant, God was not made by 

 anything, i.e. is self-subsisting ! 



The deaf and dumb, we are told,* express a con- 

 junctive sentence " by an alternative or contrast ; ' I 

 should be punished if I were lazy and naughty,' would 

 be put, ' I lazy, naughty, no ! — lazy, naughty, I punished, 

 yes ! ' Obligation may be expressed in a similar way ; * I 

 must love and honour my teacher,' may be put, ' Teacher, 

 I beat, deceive, scold, no ! — I love, honour, yes I ' " 



Of course this is a roundabout form of language, 

 compared with oral expression ; but, though longer, 

 it is fully as complete logically. 



As an example of extremely elaborated gesture-lan- 

 guage, we may cite Colonel Mallery's version f of a 

 narration of the parable of the Prodigal Son by signs : 

 " Once, man one, sons two. Son younger say. Father 

 property your divide : part my, me give. Father so. — 

 Son each, part his give. Days few after, son younger 

 money all take, country far go, money spend, wine 

 drink, food nice eat. Money by-and-by gone all. 

 Country everywhere food little : son hungry very. Go 

 seek man any, me hire. Gentleman meet' Gentleman 

 son send field swine feed. Son swine husks eat, see — 

 self husks eat want — cannot — husks him give nobody. 

 Son thinks, say, father my, servants many, bread enough, 

 * p. 117. t p. 118. 



