REASON AND LANGUAGE, 145 



part give away can — I none — starve, die. I decide : 

 Father I go to, say I bad, God disobey, you disobey — 

 name my hereafter son, no — I unworthy. You me work 

 give servant like. So son begin go. Father far look : 

 son see, pity, run, meet, embrace. Son father say, I bad, 

 you disobey, God disobey — name my hereafter son, no 

 — I unworthy. But father servants call, command robe 

 best bring, son put on, ring finger put on, shoes feet put 

 on, calf fat bring, kill. We all eat, merry. Why } Son 

 this my formerly dead, now alive : formerly lost, now 

 found : rejoice." 



Colonel Mallery's testimony is also priceless as show- 

 ing that these unfortunates have and can give plain 

 expression to the most abstract of all concepts — that of 

 "being" or "existence." He tells us that the sign used 

 by deaf-mutes to express it is " stretching the arms and 

 hands forward, and then adding the sign of affirmation." 



The abstract cognition, "time," is also clearly sig- 

 nified * in such ways as the following : " Sleep done, 

 I river go ; " meaning, " When I have had my sleep, I 

 will go to the river." 



The idea of equality is also signified by deaf-mutes 

 by extending the index fingers side by side — as when 

 repeating that expression in the Lord's Prayer, " As in 

 Heaven." We see, then, how intellectual concepts and 

 distinct statements may be made with the copula 

 remaining latent and implicit, while the most lofty 

 abstractions, even such a supremely abstract idea as 

 existence, may be intellectually conceived and clearly 

 expressed by this wonderful language of gesture. 



* p. 119. 



