42 THE GESTURE-LANGUAGE. 



may be natural^ and independent of one another. Tlie sign of 

 grasping the nose witli the crooked fore-finger for "wine/' 

 suggests that the thought of a jolly red nose was present even 

 in so unlikely a place. The sign for " the devil/' gripping one's 

 chin with all five fingers^ shows the enemy seizing a victim^ 

 and compares curiously with a passage in an Indian tale, where 

 it is not an evil demon, but Old Age in person, who comes to 

 claim his own. " In time then, when I had grown grey with 

 years. Old Age took me by the chin, and in his love to me said 

 kindly, 'My son, what doest thou yet in the house?' "^ 



There is yet another devdlopment of the gesture-language to 

 be noticed, the stage performances of the professional mimics 

 of Grdece and Rome^ the Pantomime par excellence. To judge 

 by two well-known anecdotes, the old mimes had brought 

 their art to great perfection. Macrobius says it was a well- 

 known fact that Cicero used to try with Eoscius the actor 

 which of them could express a sentiment in the greater variety 

 of ways, the player by mimicry or the orator by speech, and 

 that these experiments gave Roscius such confidence in his 

 art, that he wrote a book comparing oratory with acting.^ 

 Lucian tells a story of a certain barbarian prince of Pontus, 

 who was at Nero's court, and saw a pantomime perform so 

 well, that, though he cotild not understand the songs which 

 the player was accompanying with his gestures, he could fol- 

 low the performance from the acting alone. When Nero after- 

 wards asked the prince to choose what he would have for a 

 present, he begged to have the player given to him, saying 

 that it was diSicult to get interpreters to communicate with 

 some of the tribes in his neighboui'hood who spoke different 

 languages, but that this man would answer the purpose per- 

 fectly.^ 



It would seem froM these stories that the ancient panto- 

 mimes generally used gestures so natural that their meaning 

 Was self-evident, but a remark of Sti Augustine's intimates that 



' 'Mahrcliensaimmlting des Somadeva ihatta* (trans, by Dr. H. Brockhaus) ; 

 Leipzig, 184:3, ii. p. 96. 



2 Macrob. Saturn, lib. ii. c. x. ' Lucian. De Saltatione, 64. 



