forward, and a single nod implies an affirmation. On the other hand, in
refusing food, especially if it be pressed on them, children frequently
move their heads several times from side to side, as we do in shaking
our heads in negation. Moreover, in the case of refusal, the head is
not rarely thrown backwards, or the mouth is closed, so that these
movements might likewise come to serve as signs of negation. Mr.
Wedgwood remarks on this subject,[1118] that when the voice is exerted
with closed teeth or lips, it produces the sound of the letter _n_ or
_m_. Hence we may account for the use of the particle _ne_ to signify
negation, and possibly also of the Greek mh in the same sense.
That these signs are innate or instinctive, at least with Anglo-Saxons,
is rendered highly probable by the blind and deaf Laura Bridgman
constantly accompanying her _yes_ with the common affirmative nod, and
her _no_ with our negative shake of the head. Had not Mr. Lieber
stated to the contrary,[1119] I should have imagined that these
gestures might have been acquired or learnt by her, considering her
wonderful sense of touch and appreciation of the movements of others.
With microcephalous idiots, who are so degraded that they never learn
to speak, one of them is described by Vogt,[1120] as answering, when
asked whether he wished for more food or drink, by inclining or shaking
his head. Schmalz, in his remarkable dissertation on the education of
the deaf and dumb, as well as of children raised only one degree above
idiotcy, assumes that they can always both make and understand the
common signs of affirmation and negation.[1121]
Nevertheless if we look to the various races of man, these signs are
not so universally employed as I should have expected; yet they seem
too general to be ranked as altogether conventional or artificial. My
informants assert that both signs are used by the Malays, by the
natives of Ceylon, the Chinese, the negroes of the Guinea coast, and,
according to Gaika, by the Kafirs of South Africa, though with these
latter people Mrs. Barber has never seen a lateral shake used as a
negative. With respect to the Australians, seven observers agree that a
nod is given in affirmation; five agree about a lateral shake in
negation, accompanied or not by some word; but Mr. Dyson Lacy has never
seen this latter sign in Queensland, and Mr. Bulmer says that in Gipps
Land a negative is expressed by throwing the head a little backwards
and putting out the tongue. At the northern extremity of the continent,
near Torres Straits, the natives when uttering a negative don t shake
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