602 The American Naturalist. [July, 
you can take it out if you come;” but she can eloquently 
express her meaning by vocal signs and gestures. 
Another clue to the evolution of language may be found in 
the sign language of educated deaf-mutes and its grammat- 
ical construction. The deaf-mute does not make the statement 
“bring a black hat,” but “hat black bring ;” not “I am hun- 
gry, give me bread,” but “hungry, me bread give.” The 
Abbé Sicard says: “A pupil to whom I put this question, 
‘who made God?’ replied ‘God made nothing.’ I was accus- 
tomed to this inversion usual amongst the deaf and dumb, 
and I went on to ask him ‘who made the shoe?’ and he 
answered, ‘the shoe made the shoemaker.’ Laura Bridgman 
would spell on her fingers ‘that door, ‘give book,’ which she 
had been taught, but when she made sentences for herself she 
reverted to the usual deaf-and-dumb system, ‘Laura bread 
give, ‘water drink Laura, to express her wish to eat or 
rink. 
Mr. Tylor says: “The gesture language has no grammar 
properly so-called; it knows of no inflections of any kind 
more than the Chinese. The same sign stands for ‘ walk,’ 
‘walkest,’ ‘ walking,’ ‘ walked,’ ‘walker.’ Adjectives and verbs 
are not readily distinguished by the deaf-and-dumb. ‘ Horse, 
‘black,’ ‘ handsome,’ ‘ trot,’ ‘canter,’ would be the rough trans- 
lation of the signs by which a deaf-mute would state that a 
handsome, black horse trots and canters. The deaf-mute 
strings together the signs of the various ideas he wishes to 
connect, in what appears to be the natural order in which 
they follow one another in his mind, for it is the same among 
the mutes in different countries, and is wholly independent of 
the syntax which may happen to belong to the language of 
their speaking friends. 
With regard to the sign language of Indians Mr. Tylor 
says: “There is no doubt that the Indian pantomine is not 
merely capable of expressing a few simple notions, but that to 
the uncultured savage, with his few and material ideas, it is a 
very fair substitute for his scanty vocabulary.” Forty-three 
examples of this gesture language are given, collected by Mr. 
Pehoff, as occurring between Indians of different tribes. Colo- 
