L VOL UTION IN ASTRONOMY AND PHILOLOGY. 37 



to a study of the European languages them- 

 selves, leave little doubt as to the immediate 

 origin of most of these tongues, and in some 

 cases, we are even able to reconstruct portions 

 of unwritten history from the impress it has 

 left on our most familiar expressions. 



But amongst savage nations, as for example, 

 the aborigines of Africa, we sometimes find 

 every tribe, or even every village speaking a 

 different dialect, and language in so unstable a 

 condition that it has sometimes happened that 

 when the children of a tribe are left much to 

 themselves, they grow up speaking a new 

 language, unintelligible to their parents. Most 

 savages have a very poor vocabulary, and 

 make great use of gestures to explain their 

 meaning ; and it is possible that language may 

 have originally grown out of a combination 

 of ejaculations with gestures. 



Another cause which renders savage dialects 

 very fluctuating, is the dislike of many tribes to 

 utter the names of the dead. This is carried to 

 such an extent among the Abipones of South 

 America, that when a man dies, they alter every 

 word in their language which has any resem- 

 blance to his name. 



