to find its completest purpose of unerringly revealing each passion,
alternately, and for the nonce, swaying the human breast, will traverse,
as it were, and compass, and range over the entire gamut of human emotion.

The Indian's grace and aptness of gesture, also, in a measure, bespeak
and proclaim commanding oratory. The power, moreover, which with the
Indian resides in mere gesture, as a medium for disclosing and laying
bare the thoughts of his mind, is truly remarkable. Observe the Indian
interpreter in Court, while in the exercise of that branch of his duty
which requires that the evidence of an English-speaking witness or, at all
events, that portion of it which would seem to inculpate the prisoner at
the bar, or bear upon his crime, shall be given to him in his own tongue;
and, having been intent upon getting at the drift of the testimony, mark
how dexterously the interpreter brings gesture and action into play,
wherever the narration involves unusual incident or startling episode,
provoking their use! What a reality and vividness does he not throw, in
this way, into the whole thing! It records, truly, a triumph of mimetic
skill. Again, the opportune gesture used by the Indian in enforcing
his speaking must seem so patent, in the light of the after-revelation
by the interpreter, that we can scarcely err in confiding in it as
a valuable aid in adjudging his qualities of oratory. We are, often,
indeed, put in possession of the facts, in anticipation of the province
of the interpreter, who merely steps in, with his more perfect key, to
confirm our preconceived interpretation. It may be contended by some
gainsayer, that the Indian vocabulary, being so much less full and rich
than our own, gesture and action serve but to cover up dearth of words,
and are, in truth, well-nigh the sum of the Indian's oratory; a judgment
which, while, perhaps, conceding to the Indian honour as a pantomimist,
denies him eminence as a true orator. This may or may not be an aptly
taken objection, yet I have no hesitation in assigning the Indian high