Esoteric Languages
Artificial languages invented by certain Esquiros, Alphonse: (See France.)
castes for the better preservation of secrets, or for the Essence, Elemental: (See Evolution of Life.)
purpose of impressing the vu'gar with the mysteries and superior nature of those who employed the tongues in Essence, Monadic: (See Evolution of Life.) 66 question. They conversed with one another in eager undertones in a language I did not understand." This is one of the stock phrases of the mystery novel of the nineteenth century, and has probably given rise to a great deal of misconception as to the true character and multipliticy of esoteric tongues. As a matter of fact, these are particularly rare. It is stated by several ancient authors that the Egyptian priests possessed a secret language of their own; but what its nature was we are unable to state, as no fragments of it are now extant, -probably because it was not reduced to writing. At the same time many Egyptian magical formulæ are in existence (See Egypt) which teem with words and expressions of secret meaning; but examination of these shows that they are merely foreign, usually Syrian, words slightly changed. We know, for example, that the secret dialects of the medicine-men among the North-American Indians are chiefly composed either of archaic expressions or the idioms of other tribes. But there are examples of the deliberate manufacture of a secret tongue, such as the Shelta Thari (q.v) or language of the ancient caste of bronzeworkers, still spoken by the tinkler classes of Great Britain, and the secret language of the Ndembo caste (q.v.) of the Lower Congo. It is probable that the Jewish priesthood cast a veil of secrecy over the sacred names of the Deity, and the higher ranks of their heavenly hierarchy, by substituting other names for them, such as "Adonai" for "Jahveh." This of course arose from the Egyptian conception that the name of the god must be concealed from the vulgar, as to know it was to possess magical power over the deity. The spells and incantations of mediæval magic are full of oriental names and idioms, but much jargon also found its way into these. It was considered in the middle ages that the primitive language of the world was lost to man, and it was thought that this might only be recovered through magical agency, or the reversion to a state of complete innocence. Others believed it to be Hebrew; and it is on record that James IV. of Scotland isolated two infants on the island of Inchkeith, in the Firth of Forth along with a dumb woman who cared for them; and that in course of time they "spak gude Ebrew." A similar tradition acquaints us with the circumstance that a certain Egyptian king isolated two children in a like manner, who on coming to the period of speech met the first persons they beheld after their time of solitude with the word beccos, the Greek for bread. But these instances, it is unnecessary to say, are purely legendary. In many savage tribes, secret jargons or dialects are in use among the priesthood or the initiated of secret societies; and in several brotherhoods of modern origin, symbolic words are constantly in use for the purpose of veiling veritable meaning. The Rosicrucians (q.v.) are said to have constituted and employed an arcane tongue.