A History of Pantomime | Page 3

the trees,
shrubs, and wild beasts; he has goat's feet to denote the stability of the
earth; he has a pipe of seven reeds on account of the harmony of the
heavens, in which there are seven sounds; he has a crook, that is a
curved staff, on account of the year, which runs back on itself because
he is the god of all Nature."
Bernardin de St. Pierre observes of Pantomime, "That it was the first

language of man; it is known to all nations; and is so natural and so
expressive that the children of white parents learn it rapidly when they
see it used by the negroes."
Of the Pantomimic language--a universal language and common to the
whole world from time immemorial--Charles Darwin says in his
"Descent of Man," that "The intellectual and social faculties of man
could hardly have been inferior in any extreme degree to those now
possessed by the lowest savage; otherwise primeval man could not
have been so eminently successful in the struggle for life as proved by
his early and wide diffusion. From the fundamental differences
between certain languages some philologists have inferred that, when
man first became widely diffused, he was not a speaking animal; but it
may be suspected that languages, far less perfect than any now spoken,
aided by gestures, might have been used, and yet have left no traces on
subsequent and more highly-developed tongues."
With the progress of, and also as an aid to, civilization how could the
traveller or the trader, not only in the beginning of time, but also now,
when occasion demands, in their intercourse with foreign nations
(unless, of course, they know the language) make themselves
understood, or be able to trade, unless they were or are able to use that
"dumb silent language"--Pantomime? Civilization undoubtedly owes
much of its progress to it, and, also the world at large, to this only and
always universal language. To both the deaf, as well as the dumb, its
advantages have ever been apparent.
Therefore, from prehistoric times, and from the beginning of the world,
we may presume to have had in some form or another, the Pantomimic
Art. In the lower stages of humanity, even in our own times, there is, in
all probability, a close similarity to the savagedom of mankind in the
early Antediluvian period as "This is shown (says Darwin) by the
pleasure which they all take in dancing, rude music, painting, tattooing,
and otherwise decorating themselves--in their mutual comprehension of
gesture language, and by the same inarticulate cries, when they are
excited by various emotions." It naturally follows that even if there was
only dancing, there must necessarily, as a form of entertainment, have

also been Pantomime. Again, all savage tribes have a war-dance of
some description, in which in fighting costume they invariably go
through, in Pantomimic form, the respective movements of the
Challenge, the Conflict, the Pursuit, and the Defeat, whilst other
members of the tribe, both men and women, give additional stimulus to
these representations by a rude form of music.
The Ostyak tribe of Northern Asia give us a specimen of the rude
imitative dances of early civilization in a Pantomimic exhibition of the
Chase; the gambols and habits of the wolf and other wild beasts. The
Pantomimic dances of the Kamchadales are in imitation of birds, dogs,
and bears; and the Damaras represent, by four of the tribe stooping
down with their heads together, and uttering harsh cries, the
movements of oxen, and of sheep. The Australian Bushmen Mimic the
leaping of calves, the antics of the baboon, and the buzzing of swarms
of bees. Primitive Pantomimic dancing is practised amongst the South
Sea Islanders, and other races, and just as it was, presumably, at the
beginning of the world.
Having briefly traced the origin of Pantomime, and the source of
dancing, let us, in order to further amplify my subject, look at also for a
moment the origin of music, in the time of prehistoric man.
From Nature also do we derive this art, as "The sighing of the wind
passing over a bed of reeds is Nature's first suggestion of breath," and
of music. The clapping of hands and the stamping of feet is man's first
element in the making of music, which developed itself into the
formation of drums, bells, and cymbals, and the evolution of the same
primary principle.
It has been argued, and also ridiculously pretended, that in the
Antediluvian period mankind only lived in caves with the hairy
mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and the hyaena, in a state of
barbarous savagery; and that only since the Deluge have the Arts been
known and cities built on this terrestrial sphere of ours. Could anything
be more fallacious?
We know, from the