Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/42

32 give the words roughly corresponding to the signs by which the Lord's Prayer is acted every morning at the Edinburgh Institution. They were carefully written down for me by the Director, and I made notes of the signs by which the various ideas were expressed in this school. "Father" is represented in the prayer as "man old," though in ordinary matters he is generally "the man who shaves himself;" "name" is, as I have seen it elsewhere, touching the forehead and imitating the action of spelling on the fingers, as to say, "the spelling one is known by." To "hallow" is to "speak good of" ("good" being expressed by the thumb, while "bad" is represented by the little finger, two signs of which the meaning lies in the contrast of the larger and more powerful thumb with the smaller and less important little finger). "Kingdom" is shown by the sign for "crown;" "will," by placing the hand on the stomach, in accordance with the natural and wide-spread theory that desire and passion are located there, to which theory such expressions belong as "to have no stomach to it." "Done" is "worked," shown by hands as working. The phrase "on earth as it is in heaven " was, I believe, put by signs for "on earth" and "in heaven," and then by putting out the two forefingers side by side, the sign for sameness and similarity all the world over, so that the whole would stand "earth on, heaven in, just the same." "Trespass" is "doing bad;" to "forgive" is to rub out, as from a slate; "temptation" is plucking one by the coat, as to lead him slily into mischief. The alternative "but" is made with the two fore-fingers, not alongside of one another as in "like," but opposed point to point, Sicard's sign for "against." "Deliver" is to "pluck out," "glory" is "glittering," "for ever " is shown by making the fore-fingers held horizontally turn round and round one another.

The order of the signs is much as follows:—"Father our, heaven in—name thy hallowed—kingdom thy come—will thy done—earth on, heaven in, as. Bread give us daily—trespasses our forgive us, them trespass against us, forgive, as. Temptation lead not—but evil deliver from—kingdom power glory thine for ever."

When I write down descriptions in words of the deaf-and-