2o6 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



combinations that can be produced with ten pliable 

 fingers, or with the varying expressions of the 

 muscles of the face, are endless, and everything 

 that he cares to know can be uttered or translated 

 to him by motion, gesture, and grimace. To give 

 an idea how far gestures can be made to do the 

 work of spoken words, the signs may be described 

 in which a deaf-and-dumb man once told a child's 

 story in presence of Mr. Tylor. " He began by 

 moving his hand, palm down, about a yard from the 

 ground, as we do to show the height of a child — 

 this meant that it was a child he was thinking of. 

 Then he tied an imaginary pair of bonnet-strings 

 under his chin (his usual sign for female), to make 

 it understood that the child was a little girl. The 

 child's mother was then brought on the scene in a 

 similar way. She bec^kons to the child and gives her 

 twopence, these being indicated by pretending to drop 

 two coins from one hand into the other ; if there 

 had been any doubt as to whether they were copper 

 or silver coins, this would have been settled by 

 pointing to something brown or even by one's con- 

 temptuous way of handling coppers which at once 

 distinguishes them from silver. The mother also 

 gives the child a jar, shown by sketching its shape 

 with the forefingers in the air, and going through 

 the act of handing it over. Then by imitating the 



