Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 19

_Wichita_ I. A list of signs from Rev. A.J. HOLT, missionary, obtained from KIN-CHE-ESS (Spectacles), medicine-man of the Wichitas, at the Wichita Agency, Indian Territory, in 1879.

_Wichita_ II. A list of signs from TSODIaKO (Shaved Head Boy), a Wichita chief, from Indian Territory, who visited Was.h.i.+ngton in June, 1880.

_ZUnIAN._

_Zuni_ I. Some preliminary notes received in 1880 from Rev. TAYLOR F.

EALY, missionary among the Zuni, upon the signs of that body of Indians.

_FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE._

Valuable contributions have been received in 1880-'81 and collated under their proper headings, from the following correspondents in distant countries:

Rev. HERMAN N. BARNUM, D.D., of Harpoot, Turkey, furnishes a list of signs in common use among Turks, Armenians, and Koords in that region.

Miss L.O. LLOYD, Charleton House, Mowbray, near Cape Town, Africa, gives information concerning the gestures and signals of the Bushmen.

Rev. LORIMER FISON, Navuloa, Fiji, notes in letters comparisons between the signs and gestures of the Fijians and those of the North American Indians. As this paper is pa.s.sing through the press a _Collection_ is returned with annotations by him and also by Mr.

WALTER CAREW, Commissioner for the Interior of Navitilevu. The last named gentleman describes some signs of a Fijian uninstructed deaf-mute.

Mr. F.A. VON RUPPRECHT, Kepahiang, Sumatra, supplies information and comparisons respecting the signs and signals of the Redjangs and Lelongs, showing agreement with some Dakota, Comanche, and Ojibwa signs.

Letters from Mr. A.W. HOWITT, F.G.S., Sale, Gippsland, Victoria, upon Australian signs, and from Rev. JAMES SIBREE, jr., F.R.G.S., relative to the tribes of Madagascar, are gratefully acknowledged.

Many other correspondents are now, according to their kind promises, engaged in researches, the result of which have not yet been received.

The organization of those researches in India and Ceylon has been accomplished through the active interest of Col. H.S. OLCOTT, U.S.

Commissioner, Breach Candy, Bombay.

Grateful acknowledgment must be made to Prof. E.A. FAY, of the National Deaf Mute College, through whose special attention a large number of the natural signs of deaf-mutes, remembered by them as having been invented and used before instruction in conventional signs, indeed before attending any school, was obtained. The gentlemen who made the contributions in their own MS., and without prompting, are as follows: Messrs. M. BALLARD, R.M. ZIEGLER, J. CROSS, PHILIP J. HASENSTAB, and LARS LARSON. Their names respectively follow their several descriptions. Mr. BALLARD is an instructor in the college, and the other gentlemen were pupils during the session of 1880.

Similar thanks are due to Mr. J.L. NOYES, superintendent of the Minnesota Inst.i.tution for the education of the Deaf and Dumb, Faribault, Minn., and to Messrs. GEORGE WING and D.H. CARROLL, teachers in that inst.i.tution, for annotations and suggestions respecting deaf-mute signs. The notes made by the last named gentlemen are followed by their respective names in reference.

Special thanks are also rendered to Prof. JAMES D. BUTLER, of Madison, Wis., for contribution of Italian gesture-signs, noted by him in 1843, and for many useful suggestions.

Other Italian signs are quoted from the Essay on Italian gesticulations by his eminence Cardinal WISEMAN, in his _Essays on Various Subjects, London_, 1855, Vol. III, pp. 533-555. Many Neapolitan signs are extracted from the ill.u.s.trated work of the canon ANDREA DE JORIO, _La Mimica degli Antichi investigata nel gestire Napoletano_, _Napoli_, 1832.

A small collection of Australian signs has been extracted from R.

BROUGH SMYTH's _The Aborigines of Victoria_, _London_, 1878.

EXTRACTS FROM DICTIONARY.

In the printed but unpublished _Collection_ before mentioned, page 396, nearly three hundred quarto pages are devoted to descriptions of signs arranged in alphabetic order. A few of these are now presented to show the method adopted. They have been selected either as having connection with the foregoing discussion of the subject or because for some of them pictorial ill.u.s.trations had already been prepared. There is propriety in giving all the signs under some of the t.i.tle words when descriptions of only one or two of those signs have been used in the foregoing remarks. This prevents an erroneous inference that the signs so mentioned are the only or the common or the generally prevailing signs for the idea conveyed. This course has involved some slight repet.i.tion both of descriptions and of ill.u.s.trations, as it seemed desirable that they should appear to the eye in the several connections indicated. The extracts are rendered less interesting and instructive by the necessity for omitting cross-references which would show contrasts and similarities for comparison, but would require a much larger part of the collected material to be now printed than is consistent with the present plan. Instead of occupying in this manner the remaining s.p.a.ce allotted to this paper, it was decided to present, as of more general interest, the descriptions of TRIBAL SIGNS, PROPER NAMES, PHRASES, DIALOGUES, NARRATIVES, DISCOURSES, and SIGNALS, which follow the EXTRACTS.

It will be observed that in the following extracts there has been an attempt to supply the conceptions or origin of the several signs. When the supposed conception, obtained through collaborators, is printed before the authority given as reference, it is understood to have been gathered from an Indian as being his own conception, and is therefore of special value. When printed after the authority and within quotation marks it is in the words of the collaborator as offered by himself. When printed after the authority and without quotation marks it is suggested by this writer.

The letters of the alphabet within parentheses, used in some of the descriptions, refer to the corresponding figures in TYPES OF HAND POSITIONS at the end of this paper. When such letters are followed by Arabic numerals it is meant that there is some deviation, which is described in the text, from that type of hand position corresponding with the letter which is still used as the basis of description.

Example: In the first description from (_Sahaptin_ I) for _bad_, _mean_, page 412, (G) refers to the type of hand position so marked, being identically that position, but in the following reference, to (R 1), the type referred to by the letter R has the palm to the front instead of backward, being in all other respects the position which it is desired to ill.u.s.trate; (R), therefore, taken in connection with the description, indicates that change, and that alone. This mode of reference is farther explained in the EXAMPLES at the end of this paper.

References to another t.i.tle word as explaining a part of a description or to supply any other portions of a compound sign will always be understood as being made to the description by the same authority of the sign under the other t.i.tle-word. Example: In the second description by (_Sahaptin_ I) for _bad, mean_, above mentioned, the reference to GOOD is to that sign for _good_ which is contributed by Rev. G.L. DEFFENBAUGH, and is referred to as (_Sahaptin_ I.).

ANTELOPE.

Pa.s.s the open right hand outward from the small of the back. (_Wied_.) This, as explained by Indians lately examined, indicates the lighter coloration upon the animal's flanks. A Ute who could speak Spanish accompanied it with the word _blanco_, as if recognizing that it required explanation.

With the index only extended, hold the hand eighteen or twenty inches transversely in front of the head, index pointing to the left, then rub the sides of the body with the flat hands. (_Cheyenne_ IV; _Dakota_ VI.) "The latter sign refers to the white sides of the animal; the former could not be explained."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235.]

Extend and separate the forefingers and thumbs, nearly close all the other fingers, and place the hands with backs outward above and a little in front of the ears, about four inches from the head, and shake them back and forth several times. Antelope's horns. This is an Arapaho sign. (_Dakota_ I, II, IV.)

Close the right hand, leaving the end of the index in the form of a hook, and the thumb extended as in Fig. 234; then wave the hand quickly back and forth a short distance, opposite the temple.

(_Hidatsa_ I; _Arikara_ I.) "Represents the p.r.o.nged horn of the animal. This is the sign ordinarily used, but it was noticed that in conversing with one of the Dakotas the sign of the latter (_Dakota_ VI) was used several times, to be more readily understood."

Place both hands, fingers fully extended and spread, close to the sides of the head. _Wied's_ sign was readily understood as signifying the white flanks. (_Apache_ I.)

In connection with the above signs Fig. 235 is presented, which was drawn by Running Antelope, an Uncpapa Dakota, as his personal totem, or proper name.

BAD, MEAN.

Make the sign for GOOD and then that of NOT. (_Long._)

Close the hand, and open it whilst pa.s.sing it downward. (_Wied._) This is the same as my description; but differently worded, possibly notes a less forcible form. I say, however, that the arm is "extended."

The precise direction in which the hand is moved is not, I think, essential. (_Matthews._) This sign is invariably accompanied by a countenance expressive of contempt. (_F. Jacker._).

Scatter the dexter fingers outward, as if spurting away water from them. (_Burton_.)

(1) Right hand partially elevated, fingers closed, thumb clasping the tips; (2) sudden motion downward and outward accompanied by equally sudden opening of fingers and snapping of the fingers from the thumb.

(_Cheyenne_ II.)

Right hand closed back to front is moved forcibly downward and forward, the fingers being violently opened at instant of stopping the motion of hand. (_Cheyenne_ IV.)

Right hand closed (B) carried forward in front of the body toward the right and downward, during which the hand is opened, fingers downward, as if dropping out the contents. (_Dakota_ I.) "Not worth keeping."