THE GESTUBE-LANGUAaE. 21 



ear and tongue with the fore-finger, is to "hear" and to 



"taste/" Whatever is to be pointed out, the fore-finger^ so 



appropi-iately called " index," has to point out or indicate. 



". . . atque ipsa videtur 

 Protrahere ad gestiim pueros infantia lingnse 

 Quom facit iit digito quae sint prtEsentia monstrent."* 



To " speak " is to move the lips as in speaking (all the deaf- 

 and-dumb are taught to speak in articulate words in the Berlin 

 establishment), and to move the lips thus, while pointing with 

 the fore-finger out from the mouth, is " name," or "to name," 

 as though one should define it to " point out by speaking." 



The outline of the shape of roof and walls done in the air 

 with two hands is "house;" with a flat roof it is " room/' To 

 smell as at a flower^ and then with the two hands make a hori- 

 zontal circle before one, is " garden." 



To pull up a pinch of flesh from the back of one's hand is 

 " flesh " or " meat." Make the steam curling up from it with 

 the fore-finger, and it becomes " roast meat." Make a bird's 

 bill with two fingers in front of one's lips and flap with the 

 arms, and that means " goose ; " put the first sign and these 

 together, and we have " roast goose." 



How natural all these imitative signs are. They want no 

 elaborate explanation. To seize the most striking outline of 

 an object, the principal movement of an action, is the whole 

 secret, and this is what the rudest savage can do untaught, 

 nay, what is more, can do better and more easily than the edu- 

 cated man. "None of my teachers here who can speak," said 

 the Director of Ihe Institution, " are very strong in the gesture- 

 language. It is difiicult for an educated speaking man to get 

 the proficiency in it which a deaf-and-dumb child attains to 

 almost without an effort. It is true that I can use it perfectly ; 

 but I have been here forty years, and I made it my business 

 from the first to become thoroughly master of it. To be able 

 to speak is an impediment, not an assistance, in acquiring the 

 gesture-language. The habit of thinking in words, and trans- 

 lating these words into signs, is most difiicult to shake off"; but 

 until this is done, it is hardly possible to place the signs in the 



' Lucretius, v. 1029. 



