THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE 205 



from analogy, there are at least three witnesses who 

 may be cited in proof not only of the fact, but of 

 the high perfection to which a Gesture-Language 

 may be carried. The first of these witnesses is 

 the homo alalus^ the not-speaking man, of to-day, 

 the deaf-mute. As an actual case of a human 

 being reduced as regards the power of speech to 

 the level of early Man his evidence, even with all 

 allowances for the high development of his mental 

 faculties, is of scientific value. The mere fact that 

 a deaf man is also a dumb man is almost a final 

 answer to the affirmation that the power of speech 

 is an original and intuitive faculty of Man. If it 

 were so, there is no reason why a deaf man should 

 not speak. The vocal apparatus in his case is 

 complete; all that is required to make him utter a 

 definite sound is to hear one. When he hears one, 

 but not till then, he can imitate it. Language, so 

 far as the testimony of the deaf-mute goes, is 

 clearly a matter of imitation. Unable to attain 

 the second stage of Language — words — he has to 

 content himself with the first — signs. And this 

 Language he has evolved to its last perfection. It 

 shows how little the mere utterance of words has 

 to do with Language, that the deaf-mute is able to 

 converse on every-day subjects almost as perfectly 

 as those who can speak. The permutations and 



