SIGN LANGUAGES OF MANY KINDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 31

SIGN LANGUAGES OF MANY KINDS.

it is a singular fact, and one which proves the universality of many of our common gestuies, that a Chinese, who had fallen into a state of great melancholy from long want of society, was quite revived by being taken to a deaf-and-dumb sohodl, where he talked tivvay in gestures to his heart's content, and enjoyed himself immensely. But it is curious that many of the signs which we imagine common everywhere are, as a matter of fact, restricted in their use and significance. Take, for example, the sign of negation^ which with us and a few other peoples is a >hake of the head from left to right. In Greece it is a toss of the head backwards ; or, iv other words, a slight jerk upwards of the chin, while John Chinaman waves his hand and outspread fingers between his own face and that of the speaker, as if to wall out, as it were, the thought-, and prevent its incoming on any side; Again, in England We wave an " adieu \ " in Wales, and not inIrequently in Egypt, the "farewell" is given by pawing the air with-the hands, the palms outwards; while a Celt, in bidding one "good-bye," uses a not dissimilar gesture. FrankSj Turks, Greeks, and Armenians have all a different kind, of shrug to express their ignoranoe or carelessness aboiit anything, ijach being unlike our own gesture | and |£urkand Turkoman show their liking of an object by holding up the hand, with the tips of the fingers drawn closely together—a sign more easily and gracefully simulated than the start of surprise, the uplifted eyebrows, and the semi-idiotic smile we in this country are expected to bestow on the achievements of our friends. , The language of signs is in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean carried to an extent of which an ordinary Englishman can form no conception, and to move among the natives with any degree of comfort some knowledge of their language is absolutely necessary. Still more is this the Case with the Indian tribes, many of whom carry on communication almost solely by signs. To learn this form of speech without words sufficiently well for ordinary intercourse is declared by a competent authority to be as difficult as the acquisition of a foreign language ; to master it one must have been born in a lodge of Plain Indians, and have Jiesn accustomed to its daily and hourly use from his earliest to mature years. By order of the United States Government there has recently been published a most interesting work that forms a sort of dictionary of the signs in use by the North American Indians. Some of these are most complicated; others are at once simple and significant. As an example of the latter class, take a sign made by the Blackfeet for mother-in-law —namely, the holding of the hand over the face, as if to shut her from view. This sign proceeds from the custom among them of never seeing her face. One tribe, indeed, with a regard for the eternal fitness of things that makes one blush for civilisation, say that their god told them that they must have nothing to do with their mother-in-law. A recent traveller has described a very curious form of speech without words —a whistling language. From his account, it appears clear that to carry on a conversation in this way would be as tedious, and require quite as much patience, as did those courtships of old in which all the timehonoured formalities were gone through entirely by signs. To us such a language would present many difficulties, for whistling, in this country at least, is rapidly becoming a lost art. • Everybody remembers the paralytic old Noirtier in " Monte Christo," and his effective code of signals. Having sight and hearing left to him, he expressed approbation by closing his eyes, dissent by winking them several times, and want of something by raising them to heaven. This code, with the aid of a dictionary, so held that he could see the words as a finger was passed down them, enabled him to converse on any subject. This, however, is fiction; but fact, as usual, beats it. So late as 1864, a man both deaf and dumb, and unable to read or write, executed a will by putting a mark to it. Probate was at first refused, but the parties interested having described in a long affidavit the very interesting method by which the man carried on a conversation, it was granted without further demur. If asylums for the deaf and dumb had not made unnecessary the invention of such plans, we should doubtless have on record many other like instances of ingenuity on the part of the afflicted. Now, however, several elaborate systems of speech without words are taught in cases of necessity. In addition to the finger language, there is the natural gesture language, some of the signs of which are 7ery expressive. Thus, tapping the brow with the thumb nail means, " I have found it," or some equivalent; and cutting once with the forefinger between the lips, and flinging the said finger towards an accuser or opponent, is giving him the lie direct. But during recent years much attention has been given, in particular cases, to labiomancy, or the language of the lips; and it is now being taught in many schools with very gratifying results. * Long before the existence of characteristic positions of the lips and lower part of the face for all combinations of sound became the foundation of the practical investigations of such men as Mr Melville Bell, there were several well-authenticated cases of labiomancy on record. Of these perhaps the most striking was that of one Mary Woodward, who, losing her hearing at about six years of age, was yet able, by closely watching the lips of people who conversed with her, to perfectly understand them, even though they spoke in a whisper. It; is stated, indeed, that Mnry could understand an}'body who talked in llio chair, piovided she wt re allowed to lay her haud upon ti.o lips o£ the speaker. Other cases of like nature might be given, but without multiplying individual examples, it will suffice to refer to the Lancashire cotton operatives, many of who-n have for generations been singularly proficient in the art, or rather a combit ation of it and ge-turo lancu:'£f\ In the mills the noise insole by tho machinery is so givat th;ii it is quiio i.*i- j possible for most, of the operatives to hear oi.o iinothci speak. Consequently neady all j communication is carried "on iv the

manner stated. Weavers especially, owing to their being engaged in me noisiest part of the mill, are adepts in this visible language; and it is not uncommon for one of two gossips dealing with the shortcomings of a third party within seeing, though not hearing, distance, suddenly to break off with a look of secrecy and the muttered caution; " Fash I she'll know what we're saying ; she's a weaver." Not loug ago a case in the local police com t v turned on this very point. Questioned as to the origin of an assault, the complainant denied that she had ever used certain defamatory expressions attributed to her by the' 'defendant. Ihe iatter, however, persisted in saying, not indeed that she had heard the words, but that she had seen them ; and eventually the plaintiff faltered and gave way on the pcint, It seems that the only safeguard against this new terror to gossips Is a good beard or an abnormally fat face — something; in fine; that will hide the riiotith or alter its ilsual expression when talking. f-ther trades and callings have also their own methods of communication, just as some of the monks of old, when silence was cultivated more than it is at present, had signs for bread, fish, eggs, meat, &c. Charles Lamb has a pleasant allusion to the mysterious gestures he often saw passing between omnibus drivers. People of an observant turn may have noticed that cabnlen a,re sometimes given to signalling with their fingers aS, to thft valrie of a fare," and to the occasional vise of a peculiar sign nob itnliße that so minutely described by Rabelais— a sign which maybe known to some as "taking a sight," and to others as " making bacon." Sailors, too, have a visible language of which the etymology and the syntax are not easily grasped ! for — to take btit a single example — one of the latest writers on maritime affairs tells us that, carried away by pride at seeing his vessel leave another astern, a seaman held up a rope's end to the skipper, " a delicate way of bragging of one's own speed understood by all mariners." Beggars have a ianguage of their own; into which it were well not to inquire too closely ; but one sign which is well understood by a not unimportant section of them is worth noting, in conclusion, for the benefit of sufferers by their importunity. If the beggar be an Italian, lift your forefinger, knuckle upwards, to the level of your wrist, as it hangs by your side, and v/ag it twice or thrice from side to side. Your Italian, according to one who should know, will accept that negative instantly.