Note 180 — Chapter XII · ART AND INFORMATION

Cf. Tylor, l.c. pp. 74-79, on the improbability of the stories about tribes who cannot make themselves understood by each other without the help of gestures. Dr. Tylor’s criticism of Captain Burton’s statement that the Aropahos “can hardly converse with one another in the dark” has been amply confirmed by the subsequent researches of Mallery. Cf. Rep. Bur. Ethn. i. pp. 314, 315. Naturally, therefore, one feels inclined to adopt a sceptical attitude with regard to Miss Kingsley’s assertion that the language of the Bubis “depends so much on gesture that they cannot talk in it to each other in the dark” (Travels in West Africa, p. 439). Cf., however, with regard to the element of gesture in West African languages, Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 237.