134 UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES. 



the second or third person. In the Turkish language a 

 certain word means "no" when accompanied by a back- 

 ward moving of the head, while the same word means 

 "yes" when the head is shaken just as we shake it when 

 emphasizing our "no." The old Mexicans flapped their 

 ears in different directions and thus added many mean- 

 ings to different words, while the Peshera in South 

 Africa have their name from this very word " Peshera," 

 the only articulate sound they are able to pronounce, to 

 which they give various meanings by gestures, dis- 

 tortions of their facial muscles, etc. 



Nowadays we can see how any uneducated, ignorant 

 sailor knows how to get along with representatives of 

 nearly every nation on earth by means of mimicry and 

 gestures, and a visit to South Street, in New York, well 

 rewards any observer who keeps his eyes open. The 

 same often exceedingly ludicrous performances take 

 place on board of any transatlantic steamer, whose steer- 

 age passengers hail from every corner of the globe. 



All these so-called languages are, however, an inferior 

 way of communication, and when we speak of universal 

 languages, we must think of such as are actually spoken 

 by more than one whole nation. A universal language 

 must serve as a means of intercourse, commercial, 

 scientific, social intercourse, between several nations of 

 the globe ; it must bring them nearer together, must es- 

 tablish closer ties than any other thing would do ; it must 

 cause them to understand each other better, affect their 

 respective way of thinking, doing and living ; in short, it 

 must act as a spirtual link from mind to mind in the 

 highest sense of the word. 



Of such languages we find several, not only during the 

 present period of history, but also in times long past, 

 when neither commercial nor scientific nor social bonds 

 united the nations so closely as we find them now. 



There is indeed a marked difference between the ways 



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