294 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
USE BY OTHER PEOPLES THAN NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
The nearest approach to a general rule which it is now proposed to 
hazard is that where people speaking precisely the same dialect are 
not numerous, and are thrown into constant contact on equal terms 
with others of differing dialects and languages, gesture is necessarily 
resorted to for converse with the latter, and remains for an indefinite time 
as a habitor accomplishment among themselves, while large bodies enjoy- 
ing common speech, and either isolated from foreigners, or, when in con- 
tact with them, so dominant as to compel the learning and adoption of 
their own tongue, become impassive in its delivery. The ungesturing 
English, long insular, and now rulers when spread over continents, may 
be compared with the profusely gesticulating Italians dwelling in a maze 
of dialects and subject for centuries either to foreign rule or to the in- 
flux of strangers on whom they depended. So common is the use of 
gestures in Italy, especially among the lower and uneducated classes, 
that utterance without them seems to be nearly impossible. The driver 
or boatman will often, on being addressed, involuntarily drop the reins 
or oars, at the risk of a serious accident, to respond with his arms and 
fingers in accompaniment of his tongue. Nor is the habit confined to 
the uneducated. King Ferdinand returning to Naples after the revolt 
of 1821, and finding that the boisterous multitude would not allow his 
voice to be heard, resorted successfully to a royal address in signs, giv- 
ing reproaches, threats, admonitions, pardon, and dismissal, to the entire 
satisfaction of the assembled lazzaroni. The medium, though probably 
not the precise manner of its employment, recalls Lucan’s account of 
the quieting of an older tumult— 
tumultum 
Composuit vultu, dextraque silentia fecit. 
This rivalry of Punch would, in London, have occasioned measureless 
ridicule and disgust. The difference in what is vaguely styled tempera- 
ment does not wholly explain the contrast between the two peoples, for 
the performance was creditable both to the readiness of the King in an 
emergency and to the aptness of his people, the main distinction being 
that in Italy there was in 1821, and still is, a recognized and cultivated 
language of signs long disused in Great Britain. In seeking to account 
for this it will be remembered that the Italians have a more direct descent 
fromthe people who, as has been above shown, in classic times so long and 
lovingly cultivated gesture asasystem. They have alsohad more gener- 
ally before their eyes the artistic relics in which gestures have been pre- 
served. 
It is a curious fact that some English writers, notably Addison (Spec- 
tator, 407), have contended that it does not suit the genius of that nation ~ 
to use gestures even in public speaking, against which doctrine Austin 
vigorously remonstrates. He says: “There may possibly be nations 
whose livelier feelings incline them more to gesticulation than is com- 
mon among us, as there are also countries in which plants of excellent use 
