It is fortunately possible to produce some illustrations of the modern
Neapolitan sign language traced from the plates of De Jorio, with
translations, somewhat condensed, of his descriptions and remarks.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Neapolitan public letter-writer and clients.]
[Illustration: Fig. 77.]
In Fig. 76 an ambulant secretary or public writer is seated at his
little table, on which are the meager tools of his trade. He wears
spectacles in token that he has read and written much, and has one
seat at his side to accommodate his customers. On this is seated a
married woman who asks him to write a letter to her absent husband.
The secretary, not being told what to write about, without surprise,
but somewhat amused, raises his left hand with the ends of the thumb
and finger joined, the other fingers naturally open, a common sign for
_inquiry_. "What shall the letter be about?" The wife, not being ready
of speech, to rid herself of the embarrassment, resorts to the mimic
art, and, without opening her mouth, tells with simple gestures all
that is in her mind. Bringing her right hand to her heart, with a
corresponding glance of the eyes she shows that the theme is to be
_love_. For emphasis also she curves the whole upper part of her body
towards him, to exhibit the intensity of her passion. To complete the
mimic story, she makes with her left hand the sign of _asking_ for
something, which has been above described (see page 291). The letter,
then, is to assure her husband of her love and to beg him to return it
with corresponding affection. The other woman, perhaps her sister, who
has understood the whole direction, regards the request as silly and
fruitless and is much disgusted. Being on her feet, she takes a step
toward the wife, who she thinks is unadvised, and raises her left hand
with a sign of disapprobation. This position of the hand is described
in full as open, raised high, and oscillated from right to left.
Several of the Indian signs have the same idea of oscillation of
the hand raised, often near the head, to express _folly, fool_. She
clearly says, "What a thing to ask! what a fool you are!" and at the
same time makes with the right hand the sign of _money_. This is made
by the extremities of the thumb and index rapidly rubbed against each
other, and is shown more clearly in Fig. 77. It is taken from the
handling and counting of coin. This may be compared with an Indian
sign, see Fig. 115, page 344.
So the sister is clearly disapproving with her left hand and with her
right giving good counsel, as if to say, in the combination, "What a
fool you are to ask for his love; you had better ask him to send you
some money."
* * * * *
[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Neapolitan hot-corn vender.]
[Illustration: Fig. 79.]
[Illustration: Fig. 80.]
In Naples, as in American cities, boiled ears of green corn are vended
with much outcry. Fig. 78 shows a boy who is attracted by the local
cry "_Pollanchelle tenerelle!_" and seeing the sweet golden ears still
boiling in the kettle from which steams forth fragrance, has an ardent
desire to taste the same, but is without a _soldo_. He tries begging.
His right open hand is advanced toward the desired object with the
sign of _asking_ or _begging_, and he also raises his left forefinger
to indicate the number one--"Pretty girl, please only give me one!"
The pretty girl is by no means cajoled, and while her left hand holds
the ladle ready to use if he dares to touch her merchandise, she
replies by gesture "_Te voglio da no cuorno!_" freely translated,
"I'll give you one _in a horn!_" This gesture is drawn, with clearer
outline in Fig. 79, and has many significations, according to the
subject-matter and context, and also as applied to different parts of
the body. Applied to the head it has allusion, descending from high
antiquity, to a marital misfortune which was probably common in
prehistoric times as well as the present. It is also often used as an
amulet against the _jettatura_ or evil eye, and misfortune in general,
and directed toward another person is a prayerful wish for his or her
preservation from evil. This use is ancient, as is shown on medals
and statues, and is supposed by some to refer to the horns of animals
slaughtered in sacrifice. The position of the fingers, Fig. 80, is
also given as one of Quintilian's oratorical gestures by the words
"_Duo quoque medii sub pollicem veniunt_," and is said by him to be
vehement and connected with reproach or argument. In the present case,
as a response to an impertinent or disagreeable petition, it simply
means, "instead of giving what you ask, I will give you nothing but
what is vile and useless, as horns are."
* * * * *
Fig. 81 tells a story which is substantially the foundation of the
slender plot of most modern scenic pantomimes preliminary to the
bursting forth from their chrysalides of Harlequin, Columbine,
Pantaloon, and company. A young girl, with the consent of her parents,
has for some time promised her hand to an honest youth. The old
mother, in despite of her word, has taken a caprice to give her
daughter to another suitor. The father, though much under the sway of
his spouse, is in his heart desirous to keep his engagement, and has
called in the notary to draw the contract. At this moment the scene
begins, the actors of which, for greater perspicuity and brevity, may
be provided with stage names as follows:
Cecca, diminutive for Francisca, the mother of--
Nanella, diminutive of Antoniella, the betrothed of--
Peppino, diminutive of Peppe, which is diminutive of Giuseppe.
Pasquale, husband of Cecca and father of Nanella.
Tonno, diminutive of Antonio, favored by Cecca.
D. Alfonso, notary.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Disturbance at signing of Neapolitan marriage
contract.]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.]
Cecca tries to pick a quarrel with Peppino, and declares that
the contract shall not be signed. He reminds her of her promise,
and accuses her of breach of faith. In her passion she calls
on her daughter to repudiate her lover, and casting her arms
around her, commands her to make the sign of breaking off
friendship--"_scocchiare_"--which, she has herself made to Peppino,
and which consists in extending the hand with the joined ends of
finger and thumb before described, see Fig. 66, and then separating
them, thus breaking the union. This the latter reluctantly pretends
to do with one hand, yet with the other, which is concealed from her
irate mother's sight, shows her constancy by continuing with emphatic
pressure the sign of _love_. According to the gesture vocabulary, on
the sign _scocchiare_ being made to a person who is willing to accept
the breach of former affection, he replies in the same manner, or
still more forcibly by inserting the index of the other hand between
the index and thumb of the first, thus showing the separation by the
presence of a material obstacle. Simply refraining from holding out
the hand in any responsive gesture is sufficient to indicate that
the breach is not accepted, but that the party addressed desires to
continue in friendship instead of resolving into enmity. This weak
and inactive negative, however, does not suit Peppino's vivacity, who,
placing his left hand on his bosom, makes, with his right, one of the
signs for emphatic negation. This consists of the palm turned to the
person addressed with the index somewhat extended and separated from
the other fingers, the whole hand being oscillated from right to left.
This gesture appears on ancient Greek vases, and is compound, the
index being demonstrative and the negation shown by the horizontal
oscillation, the whole being translatable as, "That thing I want not,
won't have, reject." The sign is virtually the same as that made by
Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians (see EXTRACTS FROM DICTIONARY, page 440,
_infra_.). The conception of oscillation to show negation also appears
with different execution in the sign of the Jicarilla Apaches and the
Pai-Utes, Fig. 82. The same sign is reported from Japan, in the same
sense.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Coming home of Neapolitan bride.]
Tonno, in hopes that the quarrel is definitive, to do his part in
stopping the ceremony, proceeds to blow out the three lighted candles,
which are an important traditional feature of the rite. The good old
man Pasquale, with his hands extended, raised in surprised displeasure
and directed toward the insolent youth, stops his attempt. The veteran
notary, familiar with such quarrels in his experience, smiles at this
one, and, continuing in his quiet attitude, extends his right hand
placidly to Peppino with the sign of _adagio_, before described, see
Fig. 68, advising him not to get excited, but to persist quietly, and
all would be well.
* * * * *
Fig. 83 portrays the first entrance of a bride to her husband's
house. She comes in with a tender and languid mien, her pendent
arms indicating soft yielding, and the right hand loosely holds a
handkerchief, ready to apply in case of overpowering emotion. She is,
or feigns to be, so timid and embarrassed as to require support by
the arm of a friend who introduces her. She is followed by a male
friend of the family, whose joyful face is turned toward supposed
by-standers, right hand pointing to the new acquisition, while with
his left he makes the sign of horns before described, see Fig. 79,
which in this connection is to wish prosperity and avert misfortune,
and is equivalent to the words in the Neapolitan dialect,
"_Mal'uocchie non nce pozzano_"--may evil eyes never have power over
her.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.]
The female confidant, who supports and guides her embarrassed
friend with her right arm, brings her left hand into the sign of
_beautiful_--"See what a beauty she is!" This sign is made by the
thumb and index open and severally lightly touching each side of the
lower cheek, the other fingers open. It is given on a larger scale and
slightly varied in Fig. 84, evidently referring to a fat and rounded
visage. Almost the same sign is made by the Ojibwas of Lake Superior,
and a mere variant of it is made by the Dakotas--stroking the cheeks
alternately down to the tip of the chin with the palm or surface of
the extended fingers.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.]
The mother-in-law greets the bride by making the sign _mano in fica_
with her right hand. This sign, made with the hand clenched and
the point of the thumb between and projecting beyond the fore and
middle fingers, is more distinctly shown in Fig. 85. It has a very
ancient origin, being found on Greek antiques that have escaped the
destruction of time, more particularly in bronzes, and undoubtedly
refers to the _pudendum muliebre_. It is used offensively and
ironically, but also--which is doubtless the case in this instance--as
an invocation or prayer against evil, being more forcible than the
horn-shaped gesture before described. With this sign the Indian sign
for _female_, see Fig. 132, page 357, _infra_, may be compared.
The mother-in-law also places her left hand hollowed in front of her
abdomen, drawing with it her gown slightly forward, thereby making a
pantomimic representation of the state in which "women wish to be who
love their lords"; the idea being plainly an expressed hope that the
household will be blessed with a new generation.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.]
[Illustration: Fig. 87.]
Next to her is a hunchback, who is present as a familiar clown or
merrymaker, and dances and laughs to please the company, at the same
time snapping his fingers. Two other illustrations of this action, the
middle finger in one leaving and in the other having left the thumb
and passed to its base, are seen in Figs. 86, 87. This gesture by
itself has, like others mentioned, a great variety of significations,
but here means _joy_ and acclamation. It is frequently used among us
for subdued applause, less violent than clapping the two hands, but
still oftener to express negation with disdain, and also carelessness.
Both these uses of it are common in Naples, and appear in Etruscan
vases and Pompeian paintings, as well as in the classic authors. The
significance of the action in the hand of the contemporary statue of
Sardanapalus at Anchiale is clearly _worthlessness_, as shown by the
inscription in Assyrian, "Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes,
built in one day Anchiale and Tarsus. Eat, drink, play; the rest is
not worth _that_!"
[Illustration: Fig. 88.]
The bridegroom has left his mother to do the honors to the bride, and
himself attends to the rest of the company, inviting one of them to
drink some wine by a sign, enlarged in Fig. 88, which is not merely
pointing to the mouth with the thumb, but the hand with the incurved
fingers represents the body of the common glass flask which the
Neapolitans use, the extended thumb being its neck; the invitation is
therefore specially to drink wine. The guest, however, responds by
a very obvious gesture that he don't wish anything to drink, but he
would like to eat some macaroni, the fingers being disposed as if
handling that comestible in the fashion of vulgar Italians. If the
idea were only to eat generally, it would have been expressed by the
fingers and thumb united in a point and moved several times near and
toward the mouth, not raised above it, as is necessary for suspending
the strings of macaroni.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Quarrel between Neapolitan women.]
In Fig. 89 the female in the left of the group is much disgusted at
seeing one of her former acquaintances, who has met with good fortune,
promenade in a fine costume with her husband. Overcome with jealousy,
she spreads out her dress derisively on both sides, in imitation of
the hoop-skirts once worn by women of rank, as if to say "So you are
playing the great lady!" The insulted woman, in resentment, makes with
both hands, for double effect, the sign of horns, before described,
which in this case is done obviously in menace and imprecation. The
husband is a pacific fellow who is not willing to get into a woman's
quarrel, and is very easily held back by a woman and small boy who
happen to join the group. He contents himself with pretending to be in
a great passion and biting his finger, which gesture may be collated
with the emotional clinching of the teeth and biting the lips in
anger, common to all mankind.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.--The cheating Neapolitan chestnut huckster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 91.]
In Fig. 90 a contadina, or woman from the country, who has come to the
city to sell eggs (shown to be such by her head-dress, and the form of
the basket which she has deposited on the ground), accosts a vender of
roast chestnuts and asks for a measure of them. The chestnut huckster
says they are very fine and asks a price beyond that of the market;
but a boy sees that the rustic woman is not sharp in worldly matters
and desires to warn her against the cheat. He therefore, at the moment
when he can catch her eye, pretending to lean upon his basket, and
moving thus a little behind the huckster, so as not to be seen, points
him out with his index finger, and lays his left forefinger under his
eye, pulling down the skin slightly, so as to deform the regularity
of the lower eyelid. This is a _warning against a cheat_, shown more
clearly in Fig. 91. This sign primarily indicates a squinting person,
and metaphorically one whose looks cannot be trusted, even as in
a squinting person you cannot be certain in which direction he is
looking.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.]
Fig. 92 shows the extremities of the index and thumb closely joined in
form of a cone, and turned down, the other fingers held at pleasure,
and the hand and arm advanced to the point and held steady. This
signifies _justice_, a just person, that which is just and right. The
same sign may denote friendship, a menace, which specifically is that
of being brought to justice, and snuff, i.e. powdered tobacco; but the
expression of the countenance and the circumstance of the use of the
sign determine these distinctions. Its origin is clearly the balance
or emblem of justice, the office of which consists in ascertaining
physical weight, and thence comes the moral idea of distinguishing
clearly what is just and accurate and what is not. The hand is
presented in the usual manner of holding the balance to weigh
articles.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.]
[Illustration: Fig. 94.]
Fig. 93 signifies _little, small_, both as regards the size of
physical objects or figuratively, as of a small degree of talent,
affection, or the like. It is made either by the point of the thumb
placed under the end of the index (a), or _vice versa_ (b), and the
other fingers held at will, but separated from those mentioned. The
intention is to exhibit a small portion either of the thumb or
index separated from the rest of the hand. The gesture is found in
Herculanean bronzes, with obviously the same signification. The
signs made by some tribes of Indians for the same conception are very
similar, as is seen by Figs. 94 and 95.
[Illustration: Fig. 95.]
[Illustration: Fig. 96.]
Fig. 96 is simply the index extended by itself. The other fingers are
generally bent inwards and pressed down by the thumb, as mentioned by
Quintilian, but that is not necessary to the gesture if the forefinger
is distinctly separated from the rest. It is most commonly used for
indication, pointing out, as it is over all the world, from which
comes the name index, applied by the Romans as also by us, to the
forefinger. In different relations to the several parts of the
body and arm positions it has many significations, e.g., attention,
meditation, derision, silence, number, and demonstration in general.
[Illustration: Fig. 97.]
Fig. 97 represents the head of a jackass, the thumbs being the ears,
and the separation of the little from the third fingers showing the
jaws.
[Illustration: Fig. 98.]
Fig. 98 is intended to portray the head of the same animal in a front
view, the hands being laid upon each other, with thumbs extending on
each side to represent the ears. In each case the thumbs are generally
moved forward and back, in the manner of the quadruped, which, without
much apparent reason, has been selected as the emblem of stupidity.
The sign, therefore, means _stupid, fool_. Another mode of executing
the same conception--the ears of an ass--is shown in Fig. 99, where
the end of the thumb is applied to the ear or temple and the hand
is wagged up and down. Whether the ancient Greeks had the same low
opinion of the ass as is now entertained is not clear, but they
regarded long ears with derision, and Apollo, as a punishment to Midas
for his foolish decision, bestowed on him the lengthy ornaments of the
patient beast.
[Illustration: Fig. 99.]
[Illustration: Fig. 100.]
Fig. 100 is the fingers elongated and united in a point, turned
upwards. The hand is raised slightly toward the face of the gesturer
and shaken a few times in the direction of the person conversed with.
This is _inquiry_, not a mere interrogative, but to express that the
person addressed has not been clearly understood, perhaps from the
vagueness or diffusiveness of his expressions. The idea appears to
suggest the gathering of his thoughts together into one distinct
expression, or to be _pointed_ in what he wishes to say.
_Crafty, deceitful_, Fig. 101. The little fingers of both reversed
hands are hooked together, the others open but slightly curved, and,
with the hands, moved several times to the right and left. The gesture
is intended to represent a crab and the tortuous movements of the
crustacean, which are likened to those of a man who cannot be depended
on in his walk through life. He is not straight.
[Illustration: Fig. 101.]
[Illustration: Fig. 102.]
Figs. 102 and 103 are different positions of the hand in which the
approximating thumb and forefinger form a circle. This is the direst
insult that can be given. The amiable canon De Jorio only hints at
its special significance, but it may be evident to persons aware of a
practice disgraceful to Italy. It is very ancient.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.]
[Illustration: Fig. 103.]
Fig. 104 is easily recognized as a request or command to be _silent_,
either on the occasion or on the subject. The mouth, supposed to be
forcibly closed, prevents speaking, and the natural gesture, as might
be supposed, is historically ancient, but the instance, frequently
adduced from the attitude of the god Harpokrates, whose finger is on
his lips, is an error. The Egyptian hieroglyphists, notably in the
designation of Horus, their dawn-god, used the finger in or on the
lips for "child." It has been conjectured in the last instance that
the gesture implied, not the mode of taking nourishment, but inability
to speak--_in-fans_. This conjecture, however, was only made to
explain the blunder of the Greeks, who saw in the hand placed
connected with the mouth in the hieroglyph of Horus (the) son,
"Hor-(p)-chrot," the gesture familiar to themselves of a finger on
the lips to express "silence," and so, mistaking both the name and the
characterization, invented the God of Silence, Harpokrates. A careful
examination of all the linear hieroglyphs given by Champollion
(_Dictionnaire Egyptien_) shows that the finger or the hand to the
mouth of an adult (whose posture is always distinct from that of
a child) is always in connection with the positive ideas of voice,
mouth, speech, writing, eating, drinking, &c., and never with the
negative idea of silence. The special character for _child_, Fig.
105, always has the above-mentioned part of the sign with reference to
nourishment from the breast.
[Illustration: Fig. 105.]
Fig. 106 is a forcible _negation_. The outer ends of the fingers
united in a point under the chin are violently thrust forward. This
is the rejection of an idea or proposition, the same conception being
executed in several different modes by the North American Indians.
[Illustration: Fig. 106.]
Fig. 107 signifies _hunger_, and is made by extending the thumb
and index under the open mouth and turning them horizontally and
vertically several times. The idea is emptiness and desire to be
filled. It is also expressed by beating the ribs with the flat hands,
to show that the sides meet or are weak for the want of something
between them.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.]
Fig. 108 is made in mocking and ridicule. The open and oscillating
hand touches the point of the nose with that of the thumb. It has the
particular sense of stigmatizing the person addressed or in question
as a dupe. A credulous person is generally imagined with a gaping
mouth and staring eyes, and as thrusting forward his face, with
pendant chin, so that the nose is well advanced and therefore most
prominent in the profile. A dupe is therefore called _naso lungo_
or long-nose, and with Italian writers "_restare con un palmo di
naso_"--to be left with a palm's length of nose--means to have met
with loss, injury, or disappointment.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.]
The thumb stroking the forehead from one side to the other, Fig. 109,
is a natural sign of _fatigue_, and of the physical toil that produces
fatigue. The wiping off of perspiration is obviously indicated. This
gesture is often used ironically.
[Illustration: Fig. 109.]
As a _dupe_ was shown above, now the _duper_ is signified, by Fig.
110. The gesture is to place the fingers between the cravat and the
neck and rub the latter with the back of the hand. The idea is that
the deceit is put within the cravat, taken in and down, similar to our
phrase to "swallow" a false and deceitful story, and a "cram" is also
an English slang word for an incredible lie. The conception of the
slang term is nearly related to that of the Neapolitan sign, viz., the
artificial enlargement of the oesophagus of the person victimized or
on whom imposition is attempted to be practiced, which is necessary to
take it down.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.]
Fig. 111 shows the ends of the index and thumb stroking the two sides
of the nose from base to point. This means _astute, attentive, ready_.
Sharpness of the nasal organ is popularly associated with subtlety
and finesse. The old Romans by _homo emunctae naris_ meant an acute
man attentive to his interests. The sign is often used in a bad sense,
then signifying _too_ sharp to be trusted.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.]
This somewhat lengthy but yet only partial list of Neapolitan
gesture-signs must conclude with one common throughout Italy, and also
among us with a somewhat different signification, yet perhaps also
derived from classic times. To express suspicion of a person the
forefinger of the right hand is placed upon the side of the nose. It
means _tainted_, not sound. It is used to give an unfavorable report
of a person inquired of and to warn against such.
* * * * *
The Chinese, though ready in gesticulation and divided by dialects,
do not appear to make general use of a systematic sign language, but
they adopt an expedient rendered possible by the peculiarity of their
written characters, with which a large proportion of their adults
are acquainted, and which are common in form to the whole empire. The
inhabitants of different provinces when meeting, and being unable to
converse orally, do not try to do so, but write the characters of the
words upon the ground or trace them on the palm of the hand or in the
air. Those written characters each represent words in the same manner
as do the Arabic or Roman numerals, which are the same to Italians,
Germans, French, and English, and therefore intelligible, but if
expressed in sound or written in full by the alphabet, would not be
mutually understood. This device of the Chinese was with less apparent
necessity resorted to in the writer's personal knowledge between
a Hungarian who could talk Latin, and a then recent graduate from
college who could also do so to some extent, but their pronunciation
was so different as to occasion constant difficulty, so they both
wrote the words on paper, instead of attempting to speak them.
The efforts at intercommunication of all savage and barbarian tribes,
when brought into contact with other bodies of men not speaking
an oral language common to both, and especially when uncivilized
inhabitants of the same territory are separated by many linguistic
divisions, should in theory resemble the devices of the North American
Indians. They are not shown by published works to prevail in the
Eastern hemisphere to the same extent and in the same manner as
in North America. It is, however, probable that they exist in many
localities, though not reported, and also that some of them survive
after partial or even high civilization has been attained, and
after changed environment has rendered their systematic employment
unnecessary. Such signs may be, first, unconnected with existing
oral language, and used in place of it; second, used to explain or
accentuate the words of ordinary speech, or third, they may consist
of gestures, emotional or not, which are only noticed in oratory
or impassioned conversation, being, possibly, survivals of a former
gesture language.
From correspondence instituted it may be expected that a considerable
collection of signs will be obtained from West and South Africa,
India, Arabia, Turkey, the Fiji Islands, Sumatra, Madagascar, Ceylon,
and especially from Australia, where the conditions are similar
in many respects to those prevailing in North America prior to the
Columbian discovery. In the _Aborigines of Victoria, Melbourne_,
1878, by R. Brough Smythe, the author makes the following curious
remarks: "It is believed that they have several signs, known only to
themselves, or to those among the whites who have had intercourse
with them for lengthened periods, which convey information readily
and accurately. Indeed, because of their use of signs, it is the firm
belief of many (some uneducated and some educated) that the natives of
Australia are acquainted with the secrets of Freemasonry."
In the _Report of the cruise of the United States Revenue steamer
Corwin in the Arctic Ocean, Washington_, 1881, it appears that
the Innuits of the northwestern extremity of America use signs
continually. Captain Hooper, commanding that steamer, is reported
by Mr. Petroff to have found that the natives of Nunivak Island, on
the American side, below Behring Strait, trade by signs with those
of the Asiatic coast, whose language is different. Humboldt in his
journeyings among the Indians of the Orinoco, where many small
isolated tribes spoke languages not understood by any other, found the
language of signs in full operation. Spix and Martius give a similar
account of the Puris and Coroados of Brazil.
* * * * *
It is not necessary to enlarge under the present heading upon the
signs of deaf-mutes, except to show the intimate relation between sign
language as practiced by them and the gesture signs, which, even
if not "natural," are intelligible to the most widely separated of
mankind. A Sandwich Islander, a Chinese, and the Africans from the
slaver Amistad have, in published instances, visited our deaf-mute
institutions with the same result of free and pleasurable intercourse;
and an English deaf-mute had no difficulty in conversing with
Laplanders. It appears, also, on the authority of Sibscota, whose
treatise was published in 1670, that Cornelius Haga, ambassador of
the United Provinces to the Sublime Porte, found the Sultan's mutes
to have established a language among themselves in which they
could discourse with a speaking interpreter, a degree of ingenuity
interfering with the object of their selection as slaves unable to
repeat conversation. A curious instance has also been reported to the
writer of operatives in a large mill where the constant rattling of
the machinery rendered them practically deaf during the hours of work
and where an original system of gestures was adopted.
In connection with the late international convention, at Milan, of
persons interested in the instruction of deaf-mutes which, in the
enthusiasm of the members for the new system of artificial articulate
speech, made war upon all gesture-signs, it is curious that such
prohibition of gesture should be urged regarding mutes when it was
prevalent to so great an extent among the speaking people of the
country where the convention was held, and when the advocates of it
were themselves so dependent on gestures to assist their own oratory
if not their ordinary conversation. Artificial articulation surely
needs the aid of significant gestures more, when in the highest
perfection to which it can attain, than does oral speech in its own
high development. The use of artificial speech is also necessarily
confined to the oral language acquired by the interlocutors and throws
away the advantage of universality possessed by signs.
_USE BY MODERN ACTORS AND ORATORS._
Less of practical value can be learned of sign language, considered as
a system, from the study of gestures of actors and orators than would
appear without reflection. The pantomimist who uses no words whatever
is obliged to avail himself of every natural or imagined connection
between thought and gesture, and, depending wholly on the latter,
makes himself intelligible. On the stage and the rostrum words are
the main reliance, and gestures generally serve for rhythmic movement
and to display personal grace. At the most they give the appropriate
representation of the general idea expressed by the words, but do not
attempt to indicate the idea itself. An instance is recorded of
the addition of significance to gesture when it is employed by the
gesturer, himself silent, to accompany words used by another. Livius
Andronicus, being hoarse, obtained permission to have his part sung by
another actor while he continued to make the gestures, and he did
so with much greater effect than before, as Livy, the historian,
explains, because he was not impeded by the exertion of the voice;
but the correct explanation probably is, because his attention was
directed to ideas, not mere words.