Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 13

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 153.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 154.]

Where there has existed any form of artistic representation, however rude, and at the same time a system of ideographic gesture signs prevailed, it would be expected that the form of the latter would appear in the former. The sign of _river_ and _water_ mentioned on page 358 being established, when it became necessary or desirable to draw a character or design to convey the same idea, nothing would be more natural than to use the graphic form of delineation which is also above described. It was but one more and an easy step to fasten upon bark, skins, or rocks the evanescent air pictures that still in pigments or carvings preserve their skeleton outline, and in their ideography approach, as has been shown above, the rudiments of the phonetic alphabets that have been constructed by other peoples. A transition stage between gestures and pictographs, in which the left hand is used as a supposed drafting surface upon which the index draws lines, is exhibited in the DIALOGUE BETWEEN ALASKAN INDIANS, _infra_, page 498. This device is common among deaf-mutes, without equal archaeologic importance, as it may have been suggested by the art of writing, with which they are generally acquainted, even if not instructed in it.

The reproduction of apparent gesture lines in the pictographs made by our Indians has, for obvious reasons, been most frequent in the attempt to convey those subjective ideas which were beyond the range of an artistic skill limited to the direct representation of objects, so that the part of the pictographs which is still the most difficult of interpretation is precisely the one which the study of sign language is likely to elucidate. The following examples of pictographs of the Indians, in some cases compared with those from foreign sources, have been selected because their interpretation is definitely known and the gestures corresponding with or suggested by them are well determined.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 155.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 156.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 157.]

The common Indian gesture sign for _sun_ is: "Right hand closed, the index and thumb curved, with tips touching, thus approximating a circle, and held toward the sky," the position of the fingers of the hand forming a circle being shown in Fig. 155. Two of the Egyptian characters for sun, Figs. 156 and 157, are plainly the universal conception of the disk. The latter, together with indications of rays, Fig. 158, and in its linear form, Fig. 159, (Champollion, _Dict._, 9), const.i.tutes the Egyptian character for _light_. The rays emanating from the whole disk appear in Figs. 160 and 161, taken from a MS.

contributed by Mr. G.K. GILBERT of the United States Geological Survey, from the rock etchings of the Moqui pueblos in Arizona. The same authority gives from the same locality Figs. 162 and 163 for _sun_, which may be distinguished from several other similar etchings for _star_ also given by him, Figs. 164, 165, 166, 167, by always showing some indication of a face, the latter being absent in the characters denoting _star_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 158.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 159.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 160.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 161.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 162.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 163.]

With the above characters for sun compare Fig. 168, found at Cuzco, Peru, and taken from Wiener's _Perou et Bolivie, Paris_, 1880, p. 706.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 164.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 165.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 166.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 167.]

The Ojibwa pictograph for sun is seen in Fig. 169, taken from Schoolcraft, _loc. cit._, v. 1, pl. 56, Fig. 67.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 168.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 169.]

A gesture sign for _sunrise, morning_, is: Forefinger of right hand crooked to represent half of the sun's disk and pointed or extended to the left, then slightly elevated. (_Cheyenne_ II.) In this connection it may be noted that when the gesture is carefully made in open country the pointing would generally be to the east, and the body turned so that its left would be in that direction. In a room in a city, or under circ.u.mstances where the points of the compa.s.s are not specially attended to, the left side supposes the east, and the gestures relating to sun, day, &c., are made with such reference. The half only of the disk represented in the above gesture appears in the following Moqui pueblo etchings for _morning_ and _sunrise_, Figs.

170, 171, and 172. (Gilbert, _MS._)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 170.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 171.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 172.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 173.]

A common gesture for _day_ is when the index and thumb form a circle (remaining fingers closed) and are pa.s.sed from east to west.

Fig. 173 shows a pictograph found in Owen's Valley, California, a similar one being reported in the _Ann. Rep. Geog. Survey west of the 100th Meridian for 1876, Was.h.i.+ngton_, 1876, pl. opp. p. 326, in which the circle may indicate either _day_ or _month_ (both these gestures having the same execution), the course of the sun or moon being represented perhaps in mere contradistinction to the vertical line, or perhaps the latter signifies _one_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 174.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 175.]

Fig. 174 is a pictograph of the Coyotero Apaches, found at Camp Apache, in Arizona, reported in the _Tenth Ann. Rep. U.S. Geolog. and Geograph. Survey of the Territories for 1876_, _Was.h.i.+ngton_, 1878, pl. lxxvii. The sun and the ten spots of approximately the same shape represent the days, eleven, which the party with five pack mules pa.s.sed in traveling through the country. The separating lines are the nights, and may include the conception of covering over and consequent obscurity above referred to (page 354).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 176.]

A common sign for _moon, month_, is the right hand closed, leaving the thumb and index extended, but curved to form a half circle and the hand held toward the sky, in a position which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig.

175, to which curve the Moqui etching, Fig. 176, and the identical form in the ancient Chinese has an obvious resemblance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 177.]

The crescent, as we commonly figure the satellite, appears also in the Ojibwa pictograph, Fig. 177 (Schoolcraft, I, pl. 58), which is the same, with a slight addition, as the Egyptian figurative character.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 178.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 179.]

The sign for _sky_, also _heaven_, is generally made by pa.s.sing the index from east to west across the zenith. This curve is apparent in the Ojibwa pictograph Fig. 178, reported in Schoolcraft, I, pl. 18, Fig. 21, and is abbreviated in the Egyptian character with the same meaning, Fig. 179 (Champollion, _Dict._, p. 1).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 180.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 181.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 182.]

A sign for _cloud_ is as follows: (1) Both hands partially closed, palms facing and near each other, brought up to level with or slightly above, but in front of the head; (2) suddenly separated sidewise, describing a curve like a scallop; this scallop motion is repeated for "many clouds." (_Cheyenne_ II.) The same conception is in the Moqui etchings, Figs. 180, 181, and 182 (Gilbert _MS._)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 183.]

The Ojibwa pictograph for _cloud_ is more elaborate, Fig. 183, reported in Schoolcraft, I, pl. 58. It is composed of the sign for _sky_, to which that for _clouds_ is added, the latter being reversed as compared with the Moqui etchings, and picturesquely hanging from the sky.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 184.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 185.]

The gesture sign for _rain_ is described and ill.u.s.trated on page 344. The pictograph, Fig. 184, reported as found in New Mexico by Lieutenant Simpson (_Ex. Doc. No. 64, Thirty-first Congress, first session_, 1850, pl. 9) is said to represent Montezuma's adjutants sounding a blast to him for rain. The small character inside the curve which represents the sky, corresponds with the gesturing hand. The Moqui etching (Gilbert _MS._) for _rain_, i.e., a cloud from which the drops are falling, is given in Fig. 185.