114 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, 



no evidence to show to wha^ level of excellence the sign- 

 making faculty of man would have attained, if the race had 

 been destitute of the faculty of speech. I shall have to 

 return to this consideration in the next chapter, and only 

 mention it here to avoid an undue estimate being prematurely 

 formed of the importance of gesture as a means of thought- 

 formation, or distinct from that of thought-expression. 



I shall now proceed to analyze in some detail the syntax 

 of gesture-language. And here again I must depend for my 

 facts upon the two writers who have best studied this kind of 

 language in a properly scientific manner. 



Mr. Tylorsays : — "The gesture-language has no grammar, 

 properly so called ; it knows no inflections of any kind, any 

 more than the Chinese. The same sign stands for * walk,' 

 'walkest,' * walking,' 'walked,' * walker.' Adjectives and 

 verbs are not easily distinguished by the deaf and dumb. 

 * Horse, black, handsome, trot, canter,' would be the rough 

 translation of the signs by which a deaf-mute would state 

 that a black handsome horse trots and canters. Indeed, our 

 elaborate system of parts of speech is but little applicable to 

 the gesture-language, though, as will be more fully said in 

 another chapter, it may perhaps be possible to trace in spoken 

 language a Dualism, in some measure resembling that of the 

 Gesture-language, with its two constituent parts, the bringing 

 forward objects and actions in actual fact, and the mere 

 suggestion of them by imitation. . . It has, however, a syn- 

 tax which is worthy of careful examination. The syntax of 

 speaking man differs according to the language he may learn, 

 *equus niger,' *a black horse;' 'hominem amo,' 'j'aime 

 I'homme.' But the deaf-mule strings together the signs of the 

 various ideas he wishes to connect, in what appears to be the 

 natural order in which they follow one another in his mind, 

 for it is the same among the mutes in different countries, and 

 is wholly independent of the syntax which may happen to 

 belong to the language of their speaking friends. For 

 instance, their usual construction is not * Black horse,' but 

 ' Horse black ; ' not ' Bring a black hat,' but * Hat black bring ; ' 



