2 OBJECT OF THE PRESENT WORK. 



this pamphlet is addressed, and to whom it will be mailed, is urgently 

 requested. 



The publication will mainly consist of a collation, in the form of a 

 vocabulary, of all authentic signs, including signals made at a distance, with 

 their description, as also that of any specially associated facial expression, 

 set forth in language intended to be so clear, illustrations being added when 

 necessary, that they can be reproduced by the reader. The descriptions con- 

 tributed, as also the explanation or conception occurring to or ascertained 

 by the contributors, will be given in their own words, with their own illus- 

 trations when furnished or when they can be designed from written descrip- 

 tions, and always with individual credit as well as responsibility. The signs 

 arranged in the vocabulary will be compared in their order with those of 

 deaf-mutes, with those of foreign tribes of men, whether ancient or modern, 

 and with the suggested radicals of languages, for assistance in which com- 

 parisons travelers and scholars are solicited to contribute in the same 

 manner and with the same credit above mentioned. The deductions and 

 generalizations of the editor of the work will be separate from this vocabu- 

 lary, though based upon it, and some of those expressed in this preliminary 

 paper may be modified on full information, as there is no conscious desire 

 to maintain any preconceived theories. Intelligent criticisms will be grate- 

 fully received, considered, and given honorable place. 



PRACTICAL VALUE OF SIGN-LANGUAGE. 



The most obvious application of Indian sign-language will for its 

 practical utility depend, to a, large extent, upon the correctness of the view 

 submitted by the present writer, in opposition to an opinion generally 

 entertained, that it is not a mere semaphoric repetition of traditional sig- 

 nals, whether or not purely arbitrary in their origin, but is a cultivated 

 art, founded upon principles which can be readily applied by travelers and 

 officials so as to give them much independence of professional interpreters — 

 a class dangerously deceitful and tricky. Possessing this art, as distin- 

 guished from a limited list of memorized motions, they would accomplish 

 for themselves the desire of the Prince of Pontus, who begged of Nero an 

 accomplished pantomimist from the Roman theater, to interpret among his 



