In silent conversation

A new kind of dialogue was established: the Great Khan's white hands, heavy with rings, answered with stately movements the sinewy, agile hands of the merchant. As an understanding grew between them, their hands began to assume fixed attitudes, each of which corresponded to a shift of mood, in their alternation and repetition. And as the vocabulary of things was renewed with new samples of merchandise, the repertory of mute comment tended to become closed, stable. The pleasure of falling back on it also diminished in both; in their conversations, most of the time, they remained silent and immobile. [39]

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities [Le città invisibili]. Translated by William Weaver. Harvest/Harcourt, 1974 [1972]. ISBN: 0156453800.