144 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



to all appearances arbitrary word-making, which is more or 

 less observable in all children when first beginning to speak, 

 may, under favourable circumstances, proceed to an astonish- 

 in<T degree of fulness and efficiency ; (2) that although the 

 words, or articulate signs, thus invented are sometimes of a 

 plainly onomatopoetic origin, as a general rule they are not so ; 



(3) that the words are far from being always monosyllabic ; 



(4) that they admit of becoming sufficiently numerous and 

 varied to constitute a not inefficient language, without as yet 

 having advanced to the inflexional stage ; and (5) that the 

 syntax of this language presents obvious points of re- 

 semblance to that of the gesture-languages of mankind 

 previously considered. 



Numby = food of any kind (onomatopoetic). 



Nunny = dress of any kind. 



Milly = dressing, and any article used in dressing, e.g. a pin. 



Lee = the name for her mirse, though no one else called the woman by any other 



name than nurse. 

 Diddle-iddle = a hole ; hence a thimble ; hence a finger. 

 VVasky = the sea. 

 Bilu-bilu = the printed character ** &^," invented on learning the first letters of her 



alphabet, and always afterwards used. 



