Part 5 (1/2)
The Chinese, though ready in gesticulation and divided by dialects, do not appear to e, but they adopt an expedient rendered possible by the peculiarity of their written characters, hich a large proportion of their adults are acquainted, and which are common in form to the whole e, 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 salish, 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 ith less apparent necessity resorted to in the writer's personal knowledge between a Hungarian who could talk Latin, and a then recent graduate froe 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 atte to speak thee and barbarian tribes, when brought into contact with other bodies of e common to both, and especially when uncivilized inhabitants of the sauistic 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 h not reported, and also that soh civilization has been attained, and after changed environment has rendered their systens e, and used in place of it; second, used to explain or accentuate the words of ordinary speech, or third, they estures, emotional or not, which are only noticed in oratory or i, possibly, survivals of a fore
From correspondence instituted it ns will be obtained from West and South Africa, India, Arabia, Turkey, the Fiji Islands, Suascar, Ceylon, and especially from Australia, where the conditions are si in North Aines of Victoria, Melbourne_, 1878, by R Brough S curious rens, known only to the the whites who have had intercourse with thethened 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 steaton_, 1881, it appears that the Innuits of the northwestern extrens continually Captain Hooper, co that steamer, is reported by Mr Petroff to have found that the natives of Nunivak Island, on the Ans with those of the Asiatic coast, whose language is different Hu the Indians of the Orinoco, where es 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-uage as practiced by thens, 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 salish deaf- 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 Subliuage a 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 largeof thethe hours of work and where an original systeestures 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 systeesture-signs, it is curious that such prohibition of gesture should be urged regardingthe speaking people of the country where the convention was held, and when the advocates of it were theestures to assist their own oratory if not their ordinary conversation Artificial articulation surely needs the aid of significant gestures hest 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 throay 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 systeestures of actors and orators than would appear without reflection The pantoed to avail hiht and gesture, and, depending wholly on the latter, e and the rostruenerally serve for rhythive 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 eesturer, himself silent, to acco hoarse, obtained per by another actor while he continued to reater 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
GESTURES OF ACTORS
To look at the perforlass or with closed ears hasthe ears while at a ball and watching the apparently objectless capering of the dancers, without the aid of musical accoives his experience as follows:
”I used frequently to attend the theater and I knew by heart ood plays Whenever I wished to criticise the estures of the actors I went to the third tier of boxes, for the further I was from them the better I was situated for this purpose
As soon as the curtain rose, and the moment came when the other spectators disposed theers intothose who surrounded arded me as a crazy man who had come to the play only not to hear it I was very little embarrassed by their co as the action and gestures of the players seemed to me to accord with the discourse which I recollected I listened only when I failed to see the appropriateness of the gestures There are few actors capable of sustaining such a test, and the details into which I could enter would beto most of them”
It will be noticed that Diderot estural representation of plays that he knew by heart, but if he had been entirely without any knowledge of the plot, the difficulty in his coestures alone would have been enormously increased When many aduage in which her words were delivered, declared that her gesture and expression were so perfect that they understood every sentence, it is to be doubted if they would have been so delighted if they had not been thoroughly familiar with the plots of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart This view is confirmed by the case of a deaf-mute, told to the writer by Professor FAY, who had prepared to enjoy Ristori's acting by reading in advance the advertised play, but on his reaching the theater another play was substituted and he could derive no idea from its presentation The experience of the present writer is that he could gain very littlein detail out of the performance at a Chinese theater, where there is eneral notion of the subject as conveyed from time to time by an interpreter A crucial test on this subject was ton, in April, 1881, of _Frou-Frou_ by Sarah Bernhardt and the excellent French coence and familiar with theatrical performances, but who did not understand spoken French, and had not heard or read the play before or even seen an abstract of it, paid close attention to ascertain what they could learn of the plot and incidents froestures alone This could be determined in the special play the more certainly as it is not founded on historic events or any known facts The result was that fro the first scene in a peacock-blue riding habit to her death in a black walking-suit, three hours or five acts later, none of the students formed any distinct conception of the plot This want of apprehension extended even to uncertainty whether _Gilberte_ was married or not; that is, whether her adventures were those of a disobedient daughter or a faithless wife, and, if es was her husband There were gestures enough, indeed rather a profusion of thehly appropriate to the words (when those were understood) in which fun, distress, rage, and other emotions were expressed, but in no cases did they interpret thefor the words of the actors as the superb millinery was that of their persons, and perhaps acted as varnish to bring out dialogues and soliloquies in heightened effect But though varnish can bring into plainer view dull or faded characters, it cannot introduce into thenificance where none before existed The siestures of the most fanificant, far less self-interpreting, and though praised as the perfection of art, have diverged widely from nature It thus appears that the absence of absolute self-interpretation by gesture is by no rade of actors, such as are criticised in the old lines:
When to enforce some very tender part His left hand sleeps by instinct on the heart; His soul, of every other thought bereft, Seems anxious only--where to place the left!
Without relying wholly upon the facts above mentioned, it will be admitted upon reflection that however nuestures reat actor in the representation of his part, they estures not at all significant, and which are no less necessary to give to his declaestures on the stageand ornamentation, which by undue use defeat their object and create disgust Histrionic perfection is, indeed, lances of the eye, and poises of the body than in violent attitudes; but these slight ible without the words uttered with theesture will apply to reatest actor in telling that his father was dead can convey his grief with a shade of difference fro that his wife had run away, his son been arrested for murder, or his house burned down; but that shade would not without words infornorant of the supposed event, which of the four e, however, would fully express the exact circueneral en-talkers, whether Indian or deaf- to theestures, as indeed is the case in a less degree with spoken words, have widely different significations, according to the object of their exhibition, as well as the context
Panurge (_Pantagruel_, Book III, ch xix) hits the truth upon this point, however ungallant in his application of it to the fair sex
He is desirous to consult a dumb man, but says it would be useless to apply to a woman, for ”whatever it be that they see they do always represent unto their fancies, and ins, shows, or gestures we shall e, or demeanor shall happen to be in their view and presence, they will interpret the whole in reference to androgynation” A story is told to the same point by Guevara, in his fabulous life of the E at the foot of Mount Celion a beautiful Latin lady, who froesture what senators in her descent fro up thither She straightway iined that he had fallen in love with her and was eloquently proposing e, whereupon she at once threw herself into his arms in acceptance The experience of travelers on the Plains is to the sans commonly used to men are understood by women in a sense so different as to occasion embarrassment So necessary was it to strike thetheir minds to time, place, and circumstance, that even in the palive some short prelie is now retained by our play-bills, always e, unless, indeed, the ement is interested in the sale of librettos
GESTURES OF OUR PUBLIC SPEAKERS
If the scenic gestures are so seldonificant, those appropriate to oratory are of course still less so They require energy, variety, and precision, but also a degree of sie As regards imitation, they are restrained within narrow bounds and are equally suited to a great variety of senti the adestures applicable to the several passages in Gay's ”Miser and Plutus” one is given for ”But virtue's sold” which is perfectly appropriate, but is not in the slightest degree suggestive either of virtue or of the transaction of sale It could be used for an indefinite nuhts or objects which properly excited abhorrence, and therefore without the words gives no special interpretation Oratorical delivery derace--cannot rely upon the emotions of the moment for spontaneous appropriateness, and therefore requires preli and fencing with a si and fencing has been recommended as of use to all orators In reference to this subject a quotation fro hed at for being discovered, through the key-hole of his cha his looks and gestures I could not join in that laugh, but, on the contrary, thought hihed at hiraces in a public assembly and they did not”
OUR INDIAN CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO SIGN LANGUAGE