NOTE SPECIALLY ADDRESSED TO CORRESPONDENTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



The present paper is a fiutlier step in the general line of research indicated in the 

 " Introdnction to the Study of Sign Language among the Xorth American Indians," 

 &c., in which the study of these signs was suggested as important to illustrate the gest- 

 ure-speech of mankind. Its contents may be useful to collaborators in all parts of the 

 world, both to facilitate descri])tion by annotated reference and in suggestion as regards 

 modes of observation. It may also give assurance of thorough and painstaking work 

 at this Bureau for the fiiuil collation, in the form of a vocabulary, of all authentic signs, 

 ancient and modern, found in any part of the world, with their description, as also that 

 of associated facial expression, .set forth in language so clear that, with the assistance 

 of copious illustrations, they can be reproduced by the reader. The success of this 

 undertaking will dejiend upon the collaboration, now and before requested, of many 

 persons of several classes. The present paper shows that arrangements have already 

 been made probably sufticient to procure all the gesture-signs of the aboriginal tribes 

 of this country which can still be rescued from oblivion. The conventional signs of 

 deaf-mutes in institutions for their instruction are accessible to the present writer, who 

 also has obtained a large number of the natural signs of deaf-nuTtes invented by them 

 before systematic instruction, and used in intercourse with their families and friends. 

 More of these would, however, be gladly received. Further assistance is urgently 

 sought from philologists, travelers, and missionaries, whose attention has been directed 

 to the several modes of expressing human thought. 



The ettbrts at intercommunication of all savage and barbaric tribes, when In-onght 

 into contact with other bodies of men not speaking an oral language common to both, 

 and especially when uncivilized inhabitants of the same territory are separated by 

 many linguistic divisions, should in theory resemble the devices of the North American 

 Indians. They are not shown by published works to prevail in the Eastern hemisphere 

 to the same extent and in the same manner as in Isorth, and also, as believed from 

 less complete observation, in South America. It is, however, probable that they 

 exist in many localities, though not reported, and also that some of them survive after 

 partial or even high civilization has been attanied, and after changed environment has 

 rendered their systematic employment unnecessary. Such signs may be, first, uncon- 

 nected with existing oral language, and used in place of it; second, may be used to 

 explain or accentuate the words of ordinary speech, or may consist of gestures, emo- 

 tional or not, which are only noticed in oratory or impassioned conversation, such 

 being, possibly, survivals of a former gesture-language. 



All classes of gestures may be examined philologically to trace their possible con- 

 nection with the radicals of language, syllabaries, and ideographic characters. Evi- 

 dence has accumulated to show that the language of signs preceded in importance that 

 of sounds, the latter renuiining rudimentary long after gestui'e had become an art. 

 The early connection between them was so intimate that gestures, in the wide sense of 

 {H'esenting ideas under physical forms, had aformative effect upon many w'ords, thus show- 

 ing that language originated partly, at least, from the sounds which naturally accompany 

 certain gestures. It seems certain that the latter exhibit the earliest condition of the 

 human mind, and that mainly through them was significance communicated to speech. 

 Even if the more material and substantive relations between signs and language 

 cannot now be ascertained, we may at least expect, from the inquiries suggested, lin- 



