286 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
From many illustrations of this fact the fellowing is selected. Fig. 61 
iscopied from Austin’s Chironomia as his graphie execution of the ges- 
ture described by Quintilian: “The fore 
finger of the right hand joining the mid- 
dle of its nail to the extremity of its own 
thumb, and moderately extending the 
rest of the fingers, is graceful in approv- 
ing.” Fig. 62 is taken from De Jorio’s 
ee G! plates and descriptions of the gestures 
among modern Neapolitans, with the same idea of approbation—“ good.” 
Both of these may be compared with Fig. 63, a common sign among the 
North American Indians to express affirmation and approbation. With 
the knowledge of these details it is possible to 
believe the story of Macrobius that Cicero used 
to vie with Roscius, the celebrated actor, as to 
which of them could express a sentiment in the 
greater variety of ways, the one by gesture and 
the other by speech, with the apparent result of 
victory to the actor who was so satisfied with the 
superiority of his art that he wrote a book on 
the subject. 
Gestures were treated of with still more distinetion as connected with 
pantomimic dances and representations. schylus appears to have 
brought theatrical gesture to a high degree of perfection, but Telestes, a 
dancer employed by him, introduced the dumb 
show, a dance without marked dancing steps, and 
subordinated to motions of the hands, arms, and 
body, which is dramatic pantomime. He was so 
great an artist, says Atheneus, that when he rep- 
resented the Seven before Thebes he rendered cvyery 
circumstance manifest by his gestures alone. From 
Greece, orrather from Egypt, the art was brought to 
Rome, and in the reign of Augustus was the great 
delight of that Emperor and his friend Miecenas. 
Fie. 63. Bathyllus, of Alexandria, was the first to introduce 
it to the Roman public, but he had a dangerous rival in Pylades. The lat- 
ter was magnificent, pathetic, and affecting, while Bathyllus was gay and 
sportive. All Rome was split into factions about their respective mer- 
its. Athenwus speaks of a distinguished performer of his own time (he 
died A. D. 194) named Memphis, whom he calls the “ dancing philoso- 
pher,” because he showed what the Pythagorean philosophy could do by 
exhibiting in silence everything with stronger evidence than they could 
who professed to teach the arts of language. In the reign of Nero, a cel- 
ebrated pantomimist who had heard that the cynic philosopher Deme- 
trius spoke of the art with contempt, prevailed upon him to witness 
his performance, with the result that the cynic, more and more aston- 
Fic. 62, 
