310 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
Without relying wholly upon the facts above mentioned, it will be 
admitted upon reflection that however numerous and correct may be 
the actually significant gestures made by a great actor in the represen- 
tation of his part, they must be in small proportion to the number of 
gestures not at all significant, and which are no less necessary to give 
to his declamation precision, grace, and force. Significant gestures on 
the stage may be regarded in the nature of high seasoning and orna- 
mentation, which by undue use defeat their object and create disgust. 
Histrionic perfection is, indeed, more shown in the slight shades of 
movement of the head, glances of the eye, and poises of the body than 
in violent attitudes; but these slight movements are wholly unintelli- 
gible without the words uttered with them. Even in the expression of 
strong emotion the same gesture will apply to many and utterly diverse 
conditions of fact. The greatest actor in telling that his father was 
dead can convey his grief with a shade of difference from that which 
he would use if saying that his wife had run away, his son been arrested 
for murder, or his house burned down; but that shade would not with- 
out words inform any person, ignorant of the supposed event, which of 
the four misfortunes had occurred. A true sign language, however, 
would fully express the exact circumstances, either with or without any 
exhibition of the general emotion appropriate to them. 
Even among the best sign-talkers, whether Indian or deaf-mute, it is 
necessary to establish some rapport relating to theme or subject-matter, 
since many gestures, as indeed is the case in a less degree with spoken 
words, have widely different significations, according to the object of 
their exhibition, as well as the context. Panurge (Pantagruel, Book 
III, ch. xix) hits the truth upon this point, however ungallant in his 
application of it to the fair sex. He is desirous to consult a dumb man, 
but says it would be useless to apply to a woman, for “ whatever it be 
that they see they do always represent unto their fancies, and imagine 
that it hath some relation to love. Whatever signs, shows, or ges- 
tures we shall make, or whatever our behavior, carriage, or demeanor 
shall happen to be in their view and presence, they will interpret the 
whole in reference to androgynation.” A story is told to the same point 
by Guevara, in his fabulous life of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A 
young Roman gentleman encountering at the foot of Mount Celion a 
beautiful Latin lady, who from her very cradle had been deaf and dumb, 
asked her in gesture what senators in her descent from the top of the 
hill she had met with, going up thither. She straightway imagined that 
he had fallen in love with her and was eloquently proposing marriage, 
whereupon she at once threw herself into his arms in acceptance. The 
experience of travelers on the Plains is to the same general effect, that 
signs commonly used to men are understood by women in a sense so 
different as to occasion embarrassment. So necessary was it to strike 
the mental key-note of the spectators by adapting their minds to time, 
place, and circumstance, that even in the palmiest days of pantomime 
