in Eden. The archaic human language is the
gesture language; something the same, with
special modifications varying according to special
customs, as our deaf-mutes talk naturally (this
is not the finger alphabet), and which is, in fact,
so natural, that a deaf mute accustomed to
express himself by signs can make himself more
easily understood by savages than can another.
A Lapland woman, ignorant of English and
of all other intelligible language, told a deaf
and dumb boy by signs all about her
reindeers and elks, and "smiled much" at her
young companion. The North American Indian
code of signs and gestures very nearly resembles
those taught in the deaf-mute schools.
Gesture language is almost universal. The
Cistercian monks lighten their vow of silence by it;
and who has not seen and wondered at the strange
antics performed by our omnibus conductors and
our cabmen? A whole battery of telegraphic
signs pass from each to each as they meet each
other in the street; and the freemason's signs
are varieties of the same growth.

Certain gestures are instinctive; as crouching
or cowering in fear and to deprecate wrath,
modified by us now into kneeling and bowing.
As for salutations, these are as various as the
races of men; but in almost all places is found
some trace or use of the hand-grasp, as a symbol
of union and affection. Shaking hands is not an
universal original custom, but it is almost
universally adopted when once introduced. The
Fijians used to smell and sniff at their friends
before the Europeans came among them to teach
them better manners—now they shake hands
like sane and cleanly people; the Wanika, near
Mombaz, grasp hands, but with the Moslem
speciality of pressing the thumbs as well; the
Red Indians have adopted the habit of shaking
hands from the white men, but the clasped
hands, emblematic of friendship, had existed
among them as a sign for centuries before; and
the joined hands, forming part of so many different
marriage ceremonies, may be taken as the
almost instinctive emblem of union and affection.
The Red Indians rub each other's arms, breasts,
and stomachs, and then rub their own, to testify
their joy at meeting; the men of Central Africa
rub each other's arms up and down; the
Polynesians stroke their own faces with their friend's
hand or foot; the New Zealanders press noses
with certain formalities; so do the Lapland
Highlanders; the Andaman Islanders blow into
each other's hands with a cooing murmur; an
Indian tribe on the Gulf of Mexico blow into
each other's ears—which must be a queer and
unpleasant manner of saying "How 'ay do;"
and the Tierra del Fuegians jump about like
dogs or "the Cure." We kiss when we do
not shake hands; but our kissing is only a
variation of the New Zealander's pressing noses;
and the "pump handle" is not so very far
removed from the savage's rubbing his friend's
arms as his most appropriate manner of expressing
his esteem. Other less pleasant signs and
gestures may be met with everywhere; such as
lolling out the tongue, protruding the lips,
snapping the fingers, and "making faces"
generally, as expressive of contempt. Biting the
thumb is also used elsewhere than at Verona;
while "taking a sight," which our vulgar little
boys hold as such prime fun, was as common in
Rabelais' time as our own.

Come now to the rich section of superstition
—to the charms and counter-charms, the
bewitchings, divinations, and all the rest of the
mystic ignorance in vogue among the unenlightened
—and we find the same arts practised, and
the same follies committed, all the world over.
The old Greeks and Romans had, as their sign of
charm against the evil eye, a hand closed all but
the forefinger and the little finger which are
held out straight; and the modern Romans, with
the rest of the Italians, wear the same sign as
an unfailing amulet. When Ferdinand the First,
king of Naples, used to appear in public, he
might be seen often thrusting his hand into his
pocket. Those who understood his ways knew
that he was then clenching his fist with the
thumb struck out between the first and second
fingers, as his counter-charm against any evil
eye that might have been thrown upon him.
That, too, is a universal action—that clenching
of the fist with the thumb struck out between
the fingers; but it has different meanings according
to its locality, and none of them pleasant.
Half in jest and half in earnest, Robert Southey
used always to make the sign of the cross with
his left foot if he met one magpie. Who does
not throw a pinch of the spilled salt over his
left shoulder to avert the evil chance threatened
by the catastrophe? and who would help his
friend to salt unless he wished for a quarrel?

To make a clay or waxen image of the thing
or person wished to harm, and stick it full of
pins or thorns, or slowly roast it before a fire in
the belief that each pin prick will be a mortal
pang, and that roasting before the fire will ensure
gradual dwindling and pining to death, is a bit
of witchcraft as old and as general as witchcraft
itself. Never mind the material of which the
thing is composed, the idea remains the same.
The Australian makes a grass figure of a
kangaroo which gives him power over all the
kangaroos in the forest. Peruvian sorcerers make
rag dolls and stick cactus thorns in them, or
hide them in holes under or about houses, or in
the wool of beds and cushions, that those they
wish to harm may thereby be crippled,
maddened, or suffocated. In Borneo a waxen image
is made, and the body of the bewitched is bound
to dwindle as the wax melts, and finally to
die out as the last drop runs away. Hindús
make little figures of hair, nail clippings, &c.,
mixed with unclean earth taken from sixty-four
places, then write the victim's name across the
breast, pronouncing magical words and incantations
by which the planets seize the hated person
and infiict on him a thousand ills; or they
cripple, pierce, or distort these figures, hoping
to cripple, kill, or distort the person designated.
The South Sea Islanders collect some rubbish
belonging to one they wish to spitefully bewitch
—as the rind of a banana he has eaten, or the