22 THE GESTURE-LANGUAGE. 



logical sequence in which, they arrange themselves in the mind 

 of the deaf-mute." 



As new things come under the notice of the deaf-and-dumb, 

 of course new signs immediately come up for them. So to 

 express ''railway" and " locomotive/' the left hand makes a 

 chimney^ and the steam curling almost horizontally out is imi- 

 tated with the right fore-finger. The tips of the fingers of the 

 half-closed hand coming towards one like rays of light, is " pho- 

 tograph." 



But the casual observer, who should take down every sign 

 he saw used in class by masters and pupils, as belonging to the 

 natural gesture-language, would often get a very wrong idea of 

 its natm-e. Teachers of the deaf-and-dumb have thought it 

 advisable for practical purposes, not merely to use the inde- 

 pendent development of the language of signs, but to add to 

 it and patch it so as to make it more strictly equivalent to their 

 own speech and writing. For this purpose signs have to be 

 introduced, for many words of which the pupil mostly learns the 

 meaning through their use in writing, and is taught to use the 

 sign where he would use the word. Thus, the clenched fists, 

 pushed forward with the thumbs up, mean " yet." To throw 

 the fingers gently open from the temple means " when." To 

 move the closed hands with the thumbs out, up and down upon 

 one's waistcoat, is to " be." All these signs may, it is true, be 

 based upon natural gestures. Dr. Scott, for instance, explains 

 the sign " when " as formed in this way. But this kind of 

 derivation does not give them a claim to be included in the 

 pure gesture-language ; and it really does not seem as though 

 it would make much difference to the children if the sign for 

 "when" were used for "yet," and so on. 



The Abbe Sicard has left us a voluminous account of the 

 sign-language he used, which may serve as an example of the 

 curious hybrid systems which grow up in this way, by the 

 grafting of the English, or French, or German grammar and 

 dictionary on the gesture-language. Sicard was strongly im- 

 pressed with the necessity of using the natural signs, and even 

 his most arbitrary ones may have been based on such ; but he 

 had set himself to make gestures do whatever Words can do. 



