In connection with any theory it is important to inquire into the
permanence of particular gesture signs to express a special idea or
object when the system has been long continued. Many examples have
been given above showing that the gestures of classic times are still
in use by the modern Italians with the same signification; indeed that
the former on Greek vases or reliefs or in Herculanean bronzes
can only be interpreted by the latter. In regard to the signs of
instructed deaf-mutes in this country there appears to be a permanence
beyond expectation. Mr. Edmund Booth, a pupil of the Hartford
Institute half a century ago, and afterwards a teacher, says in the
"_Annals_" for April, 1880, that the signs used by teachers and pupils
at Hartford, Philadelphia, Washington, Council Bluffs, and Omaha were
nearly the same as he had learned. "We still adhere to the old sign
for President from Monroe's three-cornered hat, and for governor we
designate the cockade worn by that dignitary on grand occasions three
generations ago."
The specific comparisons made, especially by Dr. Washington Matthews
and Dr. W.O. Boteler, of the signs reported by the Prince of Wied
in 1832 with those now used by the same tribes from whom he obtained
them, show a remarkable degree of permanency in many of those that
were so clearly described by the Prince as to be proper subjects of
any comparison. If they have persisted for half a century their age
is probably much greater. In general it is believed that signs,
constituting as they do a natural mode of expression, though enlarging
in scope as new ideas and new objects require to be included and
though abbreviated as hereinafter explained, do not readily change in
their essentials.
The writer has before been careful to explain that he does not present
any signs as precisely those of primitive man, not being so carried
away by enthusiasm as to suppose them possessed of immutability and
immortality not found in any other mode of human utterance. Yet such
signs as are generally prevalent among Indian tribes, and also in
other parts of the world, must be of great antiquity. The use of
derivative meanings to a sign only enhances this presumption. At
first there might not appear to be any connection between the ideas of
_same_ and _wife_, expressed by the sign of horizontally extending
the two forefingers side by side. The original idea was doubtless that
given by the Welsh captain in Shakspere's Henry V: "'Tis so like as
my fingers is to my fingers," and from this similarity comes "equal,"
"companion," and subsequently the close life-companion "wife." The
sign is used in each of these senses by different Indian tribes,
and sometimes the same tribe applies it in all of the senses as
the context determines. It appears also in many lands with all the
significations except that of "wife." It is proper here to mention
that the suggestion of several correspondents that the Indian sign as
applied to "wife" refers to "lying together" is rendered improbable
by the fact that when the same tribes desire to express the sexual
relation of marriage it is gestured otherwise. Many signs but little
differentiated were unstable, while others that have proved the best
modes of expression have survived as definite and established. Their
prevalence and permanence being mainly determined by the experience of
their utility, it would be highly interesting to ascertain how long a
time was required for a distinctly new conception or execution to gain
currency, become "the fashion," so to speak, over a large part of the
continent, and to be supplanted by a new "mode." A note may be made in
this connection of the large number of diverse signs for _horse_, all
of which must have been invented within a comparatively recent period,
and the small variation in the signs for _dog_, which are probably
ancient.