.GESTURE-LANGUAGE AND WOKD-LANGUAGE. 81 



primitive language^ placed two infants on an uninhabited island 

 in tlie Hebrides, under the care of a dumb old woman," etc.^ 



Tlie third story is told of the great Mogul, Akbar Elan. 

 It is mentioned by Purcbas, only twenty years after Akbar's 

 deatb,^ and told in detail by the Jesuit Father Catrou, as 

 follows : — 



" Indeed it may be said that desire of knowledge was Ak- 

 bar^s ruling passion, and his curiosity induced him to try a 

 very strange experiment. He wished to ascertain what lan- 

 guage childi^en would speak without teaching, as he had heard 

 that Hebrew was the natural language of those who had been 

 taught no other. To settle the question, he had twelve 

 children at the breast shut up in a castle six leagues from 

 Agra, and brought up by twelve dumb nurses. A porter, who 

 was dumb also, was put in charge and forbidden on pain of 

 death to open the castle door. When the children were 

 twelve years old [there is a decided feeling for duodecimals in 

 the story], he had them brought before him, and collected in 

 his palace men skilled in all languages. A Jew who was at 

 Agra was to judge whether the children spoke Hebrew. 

 There was no difficulty in finding Arabs and Chaldeans in the 

 capital. On the other hand the Indian philosophers asserted 

 that the children would speak the Hanscrit^ language, which 

 takes the place of Latin among them, and is only in use 

 among the learned, and is learnt in order to understand the 

 ancient Indian books of Philosophy and Theology. When how- 

 ever the children appeared before the Emperor, every one was 

 astonished to find that they did not speak any language at all. 

 They had learnt from their nurses to do without any, and they 

 merely expressed their thoughts by gestures which answered 

 the purpose of words. They were so savage and so shy that 

 it was a work of some trouble to tame them and to loosen 

 their tongues, which they had scarcely used during their in- 

 fancy."* 



^ Margaret Groodman, ' Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy ;' London, 

 1862, p. 51. 



2 Purchas, His Pilgrimes ; London, 1625-6, vol. v. (1626) p. 516. 

 ^ /. e. Sanskrit, after the Persian form of the word. 

 * Catrou, Hist. Gen. de I'Empire du Mogol ; Paris, 1705, p. 259, etc. 



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