204 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



we are to seek for the exciting cause of the earhest 

 forms of speech. 



The simplest Language open to Man was that 

 which we have already seen to mark the beginning 

 of all Language, the Language of gesture or sign. 

 To the word gesture, however, it is necessary to 

 attach a larger meaning than the term ordinarily 

 expresses to us. It is not to be limited, for ex- 

 ample, to visible movements of the limbs or facial 

 muscles. The ejaculations of the savage, the drum- 

 ming of the gorilla, the screech of the parrot, the 

 crying, growling, purring, hissing, and spitting of 

 other animals are all forms of gesture. Nor is it 

 possible to separate the Language of gesture from 

 the Language of intonation. These have grown 

 up side by side and can neither be distinguished 

 psychologically nor as to priority in the order of 

 Evolution. Intonation, though it has grown to be 

 infinitely the more delicate instrument of the two 

 and is still so important a part of some Languages 

 — the Chinese, for example — as to be an integral 

 part of them, has its roots in the same soil and 

 must be looked upon as, along with it, the earliest 

 form of Language. 



That this Gesture-Language marked, if not the 

 dawn, at least a very early stage of Language in the 

 case of Man, there is abundant evidence. Apart 



