CHAPTER II.

"O dea, si prima repetens ab origine pergam et vacet annalesrn nostrorum audire laborum. Ante diem clauso componat Vesperrn Olympo."--VERGIL, _Æneid_, Book I. 372.rnrn "O goddess, if I were to proceed retracing them from their firstrn origin, and thou hadst leisure to hear the records of our laboursrn before (the end), the Evening Star would lull the day to rest, Olympus being closed."rnrnrnHowever, granting the scientific imagination to assume a starting-pointrnwhen the vast Ice Period was vanishing and language was not the test ofrnrace, but of social contact, it must be allowed that the River Drift-manrnwas the first of his species that touched our shores, followed by thernCave-dwellers some thousands of years later; the latter man having hisrnabode fixed to a locality, and his wanderings within prescribed limits.rnrnHe may have, this prehistoric man, this Cave-dweller, chattered like arnmonkey in a patois understood only by his own family; but what is morernreasonable to suppose than that the Drift-men of the marshes andrncoastlines had only a restricted use for vocal sounds, sign-languagernbeing expressive enough to meet their few wants? Meagre socialrnconditions, peculiar isolation, savagery, strife for life, call for norncomplex language, but sign-language has the authority of people livingrnon the globe to-day, not only amongst uncivilised races, but traces arernseen in our very midst.rnrnThe few examples of custom and signs given below will better illustraternthe force of the statement.rnrn"Amongst the Uvinza, when two grandees meet, the junior leans forward,rnbends his knees, and places the palms of his hands on the ground, one onrneither side his feet, while the senior claps hands over him six orrnseven times."rnrnIn the morning among the Walunga all the villagers turn out, and arncontinuous clapping is kept up to the vocalisation of a shrillrn"Kwi-tata?" or "How do you do?"rnrnTwo special signs for "good" are in the sign-vocabulary of the NorthrnAmerican Indians, and are worth recording. The person greeting holds thernright hand, back up, in front of and close to the heart, with thernfingers extended and pointing to the left. Another habit is that ofrnpassing the open right hand, palm downwards, from the heart, towards thernperson greeted. A stranger making his appearance on the frontier line ofrnan Indian camp seldom fails to recognise the true sentiment of thernchief's salutation, the extended fingers on the left side meaning--rnrn"You are near my heart--expect no treachery," a most solemn surety;rnwhile the hand sent from the heart towards the visitor seems to say--rnrn"I extend hospitality to you."rnrnThe "attingere extremis digitis" of the Romans expressed the samerntemperate conduct.rnrnBut greeting by gesture and hand-clapping still live, and are discoveredrnin the first lessons given by a mother to her babe.rnrn "Clap hands, papa comes,"rnrnandrnrn "Pat a cake, pat a cake, my little man, Yes, I will, mother, as fast as I can"rnrnhave a universal significance in Child Land. Unfortunately this survivalrnof hand-clapping, a vestige of a habit belonging to primitive people,rndoes not begin and end in our modern nursery.rnrn"When I was a child I spake as a child, but when I became a man I putrnaway childish things," is a resolve daily forgotten.rnrnIn the theatre, when our sentiment is awakened by the craft of the stagernplayer, we show approbation by a round of hand-clapping not one whitrnless savage than the habit of the Uvinza grandee or the good-morningrnamong the Walunga tribe.rnrn "O wad some Power the giftie gie usrn To see oursels as others see us!"rnrnThis demonstration of feeling may have more _corps d'esprit_ than thernfeeble "hear, hear" of the educated or self-restrained man, butrnsign-language, especially among the Anglo-Saxon race, is on the wane.rnIts exodus is slowly going on, lingering anon in the ritual ofrnreligions, yet in social life ever being expelled.rnrn"It is rude to point," says the nursemaid to her little charge.rnrn"Is it rude to shake hands, nurse?" once exclaimed a child cynic. Thernnurse was nonplussed. The middle-class mother answers the child'srnquestion--rnrn"Yes, dear--with anyone in a lower position."rnrn"That's a case," said an Irishman on hearing it, "of twopence-halfpennyrnlooking down on twopence," or by another comparison, it is a case of onernEnglish grandee clapping his hands over another grandee's head. Still,rnthough educational influences and nine-tenths of the coterie of societyrnwage war against sign-language, ill-mannered men and badly-behavedrnchildren must always be with us.rnrn"'Tis rude to laugh" is another precept of the hypercritical mother.rnWhy? Goodness only knows!--for none but a pompous blockhead or a solemnrnprig will pretend that he never relaxes. But let ancient Plato, brimfulrnas he was of philosophy, answer the question "When not to laugh?"rnrnIndulging one day in idle waggery, Plato, on seeing a staid disciplernapproach, suddenly exclaimed to his fellows, "Let's be wise now, for Irnsee a fool coming," and under hypocrisy's mask all merriment ceased.rnrnAgesilaus in mere sport romped with his children, and delighted them byrnriding on a stick round the nursery, possibly singing, after the mannerrnof many a modern rollicking nursery-loving father--rnrn "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross."rnrnWith men, however, kingly proclamations, laws, empires pass away and arernforgotten, time obliterates their memories, but in Child Land all therninhabitants, from the tiniest crower to the ten-year-old boy, show anrneager appreciation in the conservation of the pleasing lore contained inrnthe lullabies, the jingles, the tales, the riddles, the proverbs, andrnthe games of the nursery classics.rnrnAnd what terrible critics these babies are! What a perverse preferencernthey have for the soft jingle of nonsensical melody; blank verse withrnits five accents and want of rhythm does not soothe: they must havernthe--rnrn "Lalla, lalla, lalla, Aut dormi, aut lacta"rnrnof their prototype of Roman days.rnrnHow they revel and delight in the mother's measured song of--rnrn "Dance, little baby, dance up high, Never mind, baby, mother is nigh; Crow and caper, caper and crow, There, little baby, there you go. Up to the ceiling, down to the ground, Backwards and forwards, round and round; So dance, little baby, and mother will sing, With a high cockolorum and tingle, ting ting."rnrnOr--rnrn "With a merry, gay coral, and tingle, ting ting."[A]rnrnrnFOOTNOTES:rnrn[A] First printed in a selection of nursery rhymes by Taylor, 1828. Arnmodern well-known baby dance.