are printed on the waterproof paper I formerly mentioned, and in many of them the character used is the sort of telegraphic symbols I have endeavoured to describe.
I found great pleasure in conversing with this amiable young lady in the manner of her country, and confess to having experienced a certain thrill through me the first time I was permitted to use the language of intimate friends and spell the words on her soft white skin. Constant use has, however, divested this mode of communication of all feelings of indelicacy among the Colymbians, and ladies and gentlemen tap out their chats on one another's skins with no more sense of impropriety than though they were drumming away on a deal table.
But the tapping conversation implies a certain amount of intimacy and equality among those who use it. Strangers or inferiors always address in the visible or audible language; and the rapidity with which conversation is carried on by either of these methods is the result of constant practice.
In addition to the modes of speech I have described, there is a higher style of language employed by orators, public speakers, and lecturers. The telegraphic system before described forms the basis of this language, but it is expressed musically. The music is not like a tune; indeed the proficients in the musical oratory affect to despise and discard melody, leaving it to nurses and the performers in the gyrating halls.
The time and tact of the music convey the words; the notes themselves the expression. Thus, every note struck has a precise meaning, and the system expresses the highest flights of eloquence, the finest shades of passion and emotion, and is equally fitted
