Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes | Page 7

and it is reasonable to suppose that those were made by man at the time
when, if ever, he was, like the animals, destitute of articulate speech.
The articulate cries uttered by some animals, especially some birds, are
interesting as connected with the principle of imitation to which
languages in part owe their origin, but in the cases of forced imitation,
the mere acquisition of a vocal trick, they only serve to illustrate that
power of imitation, and are without significance. Sterne's starling, after
his cage had been opened, would have continued to complain that he
could not get out. If the bird had uttered an instinctive cry of distress
when in confinement and a note of joy on release, there would have
been a nearer approach to language than if it had clearly pronounced

many sentences. Such notes and cries of animals, many of which are
connected with reproduction and nutrition, are well worth more
consideration than can now be given, but regarding them generally it is
to be questioned if they are so expressive as the gestures of the same
animals. It is contended that the bark of a dog is distinguishable into
fear, defiance, invitation, and a note of warning, but it also appears that
those notes have been known only since the animal has been
domesticated. The gestures of the dog are far more readily
distinguished than his bark, as in his preparing for attack, or caressing
his master, resenting an injury, begging for food, or simply soliciting
attention. The chief modern use of his tail appears to be to express his
ideas and sensations. But some recent experiments of Prof. A.
GRAHAM BELL, no less eminent from his work in artificial speech
than in telephones, shows that animals are more physically capable of
pronouncing articulate sounds than has been supposed. He informed the
writer that he recently succeeded by manipulation in causing an English
terrier to form a number of the sounds of our letters, and particularly
brought out from it the words "How are you, Grandmamma?" with
distinctness. This tends to prove that only absence of brain power has
kept animals from acquiring true speech. The remarkable vocal
instrument of the parrot could be used in significance as well as in
imitation, if its brain had been developed beyond the point of
expression by gesture, in which latter the bird is expert.
The gestures of monkeys, whose hands and arms can be used, are
nearly akin to ours. Insects communicate with each other almost
entirely by means of the antennæ. Animals in general which, though
not deaf, can not be taught by sound, frequently have been by signs,
and probably all of them understand man's gestures better than his
speech. They exhibit signs to one another with obvious intention, and
they also have often invented them as a means of obtaining their wants
from man.

_GESTURES OF YOUNG CHILDREN._
The wishes and emotions of very young children are conveyed in a

small number of sounds, but in a great variety of gestures and facial
expressions. A child's gestures are intelligent long in advance of speech;
although very early and persistent attempts are made to give it
instruction in the latter but none in the former, from the time when it
begins risu cognoscere matrem. It learns words only as they are taught,
and learns them through the medium of signs which are not expressly
taught. Long after familiarity with speech, it consults the gestures and
facial expressions of its parents and nurses as if seeking thus to
translate or explain their words. These facts are important in reference
to the biologic law that the order of development of the individual is
the same as that of the species.
Among the instances of gestures common to children throughout the
world is that of protruding the lips, or pouting, when somewhat angry
or sulky. The same gesture is now made by the anthropoid apes and is
found strongly marked in the savage tribes of man. It is noticed by
evolutionists that animals retain during early youth, and subsequently
lose, characters once possessed by their progenitors when adult, and
still retained by distinct species nearly related to them.
The fact is not, however, to be ignored that children invent words as
well as signs with as natural an origin for the one as for the other. An
interesting case was furnished to the writer by Prof. BELL of an infant
boy who used a combination of sounds given as "nyum-nyum," an
evident onomatope of gustation, to mean "good," and not only in
reference to articles of food relished but as applied to persons of whom
the child was fond, rather in the abstract idea of "niceness" in general.
It is a singular coincidence that a bright young girl,