stia_, published
1749-1756, may be compared with the present exhibitions of deaf-mutes
in institutions for their instruction. He says it was not articulate
like the vocal speech of our time, but was tacit, being produced not
by external respiration, but by internal. They were able to express
their meaning by slight motions of the lips and corresponding changes
of the face.

[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Group from an ancient Greek vase.]

Austin's comprehensive work, _Chironomia, or a Treatise on Rhetorical
Delivery, London_, 1806, is a repertory of information for all writers
on gesture, who have not always given credit to it, as well as on all
branches of oratory. This has been freely used by the present writer,
as has also the volume by the canon Andrea de Jorio, _La Mimica degli
Antichi investigata nel Gestire Napoletano, Napoli_, 1832. The canon's
chief object was to interpret the gestures of the ancients as shown
in their works of art and described in their writings, by the modern
gesticulations of the Neapolitans, and he has proved that the general
system of gesture once prevailing in ancient Italy is substantially
the same as now observed. With an understanding of the existing
language of gesture the scenes on the most ancient Greek vases
and reliefs obtain a new and interesting significance and form a
connecting link between the present and prehistoric times. Two of
De Jorio's plates are here reproduced, Figs. 64 and 67, with such
explanation and further illustration as is required for the present
subject.

The spirited figures upon the ancient vase, Fig. 64, are red upon a
black ground and are described in the published account in French of
the collection of Sir John Coghill, Bart., of which the following is a
free translation:

Dionysos or Bacchus is represented with a strong beard, his head girt
with the credemnon, clothed in a long folded tunic, above which is an
ample cloak, and holding a thyrsus. Under the form of a satyr, Comus,
or the genius of the table, plays on the double flute and tries to
excite to the dance two nymphs, the companions of Bacchus--Galene,
Tranquility, and Eudia, Serenity. The first of them is dressed in
a tunic, above which is a fawn skin, holding a tympanum or classic
drum on which she is about to strike, while her companion marks the
time by a snapping of the fingers, which custom the author of the
catalogue wisely states is still kept up in Italy in the dance of the
tarantella.