Edmund was not with us when we paid our first visit to
it; but he had predicted its existence during one of our conversations,
when we were talking of the silent language.
"This people," he had said, "has a great history behind it, extending
over periods which would amaze our disinterrers of human antiquity, but
an intelligent race cannot make history without also keeping records of
it. Tradition alone, handed on from mind to mind, would not answer their
requirements. The possession of the power to communicate thought without
spoken language does not presuppose a power of memory any more perfect
than we have. The brain forgets, the imagination misleads, with them as
with us, and consequently they must have books of some kind--which
implies a written or printed language. It is probable that this language
does not correspond with the very meager one of which we occasionally
hear them pronounce a few words. The latter is, I am convinced, used only
for names and interjections, and sometimes to call the attention of the
person addressed, while the former must be a rich and carefully
elaborated system of literary expression, which may not be phonetic at
all.
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