Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 86.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 87.]

Next to her is a hunchback, who is present as a familiar clown or merrymaker, and dances and laughs to please the company, at the same time snapping his fingers. Two other ill.u.s.trations of this action, the middle finger in one leaving and in the other having left the thumb and pa.s.sed to its base, are seen in Figs. 86, 87. This gesture by itself has, like others mentioned, a great variety of significations, but here means _joy_ and acclamation. It is frequently used among us for subdued applause, less violent than clapping the two hands, but still oftener to express negation with disdain, and also carelessness.

Both these uses of it are common in Naples, and appear in Etruscan vases and Pompeian paintings, as well as in the cla.s.sic authors. The significance of the action in the hand of the contemporary statue of Sardanapalus at Anchiale is clearly _worthlessness_, as shown by the inscription in a.s.syrian, "Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes, built in one day Anchiale and Tarsus. Eat, drink, play; the rest is not worth _that_!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 88.]

The bridegroom has left his mother to do the honors to the bride, and himself attends to the rest of the company, inviting one of them to drink some wine by a sign, enlarged in Fig. 88, which is not merely pointing to the mouth with the thumb, but the hand with the incurved fingers represents the body of the common gla.s.s flask which the Neapolitans use, the extended thumb being its neck; the invitation is therefore specially to drink wine. The guest, however, responds by a very obvious gesture that he don't wish anything to drink, but he would like to eat some macaroni, the fingers being disposed as if handling that comestible in the fas.h.i.+on of vulgar Italians. If the idea were only to eat generally, it would have been expressed by the fingers and thumb united in a point and moved several times near and toward the mouth, not raised above it, as is necessary for suspending the strings of macaroni.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 89.--Quarrel between Neapolitan women.]

In Fig. 89 the female in the left of the group is much disgusted at seeing one of her former acquaintances, who has met with good fortune, promenade in a fine costume with her husband. Overcome with jealousy, she spreads out her dress derisively on both sides, in imitation of the hoop-skirts once worn by women of rank, as if to say "So you are playing the great lady!" The insulted woman, in resentment, makes with both hands, for double effect, the sign of horns, before described, which in this case is done obviously in menace and imprecation. The husband is a pacific fellow who is not willing to get into a woman's quarrel, and is very easily held back by a woman and small boy who happen to join the group. He contents himself with pretending to be in a great pa.s.sion and biting his finger, which gesture may be collated with the emotional clinching of the teeth and biting the lips in anger, common to all mankind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 90.--The cheating Neapolitan chestnut huckster.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 91.]

In Fig. 90 a contadina, or woman from the country, who has come to the city to sell eggs (shown to be such by her head-dress, and the form of the basket which she has deposited on the ground), accosts a vender of roast chestnuts and asks for a measure of them. The chestnut huckster says they are very fine and asks a price beyond that of the market; but a boy sees that the rustic woman is not sharp in worldly matters and desires to warn her against the cheat. He therefore, at the moment when he can catch her eye, pretending to lean upon his basket, and moving thus a little behind the huckster, so as not to be seen, points him out with his index finger, and lays his left forefinger under his eye, pulling down the skin slightly, so as to deform the regularity of the lower eyelid. This is a _warning against a cheat_, shown more clearly in Fig. 91. This sign primarily indicates a squinting person, and metaphorically one whose looks cannot be trusted, even as in a squinting person you cannot be certain in which direction he is looking.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 92.]

Fig. 92 shows the extremities of the index and thumb closely joined in form of a cone, and turned down, the other fingers held at pleasure, and the hand and arm advanced to the point and held steady. This signifies _justice_, a just person, that which is just and right. The same sign may denote friends.h.i.+p, a menace, which specifically is that of being brought to justice, and snuff, i.e. powdered tobacco; but the expression of the countenance and the circ.u.mstance of the use of the sign determine these distinctions. Its origin is clearly the balance or emblem of justice, the office of which consists in ascertaining physical weight, and thence comes the moral idea of distinguis.h.i.+ng clearly what is just and accurate and what is not. The hand is presented in the usual manner of holding the balance to weigh articles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 93.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 94.]

Fig. 93 signifies _little, small_, both as regards the size of physical objects or figuratively, as of a small degree of talent, affection, or the like. It is made either by the point of the thumb placed under the end of the index (a), or _vice versa_ (b), and the other fingers held at will, but separated from those mentioned. The intention is to exhibit a small portion either of the thumb or index separated from the rest of the hand. The gesture is found in Herculanean bronzes, with obviously the same signification. The signs made by some tribes of Indians for the same conception are very similar, as is seen by Figs. 94 and 95.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 95.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 96.]

Fig. 96 is simply the index extended by itself. The other fingers are generally bent inwards and pressed down by the thumb, as mentioned by Quintilian, but that is not necessary to the gesture if the forefinger is distinctly separated from the rest. It is most commonly used for indication, pointing out, as it is over all the world, from which comes the name index, applied by the Romans as also by us, to the forefinger. In different relations to the several parts of the body and arm positions it has many significations, e.g., attention, meditation, derision, silence, number, and demonstration in general.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 97.]

Fig. 97 represents the head of a jacka.s.s, the thumbs being the ears, and the separation of the little from the third fingers showing the jaws.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 98.]

Fig. 98 is intended to portray the head of the same animal in a front view, the hands being laid upon each other, with thumbs extending on each side to represent the ears. In each case the thumbs are generally moved forward and back, in the manner of the quadruped, which, without much apparent reason, has been selected as the emblem of stupidity.

The sign, therefore, means _stupid, fool_. Another mode of executing the same conception--the ears of an a.s.s--is shown in Fig. 99, where the end of the thumb is applied to the ear or temple and the hand is wagged up and down. Whether the ancient Greeks had the same low opinion of the a.s.s as is now entertained is not clear, but they regarded long ears with derision, and Apollo, as a punishment to Midas for his foolish decision, bestowed on him the lengthy ornaments of the patient beast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 99.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 100.]

Fig. 100 is the fingers elongated and united in a point, turned upwards. The hand is raised slightly toward the face of the gesturer and shaken a few times in the direction of the person conversed with.

This is _inquiry_, not a mere interrogative, but to express that the person addressed has not been clearly understood, perhaps from the vagueness or diffusiveness of his expressions. The idea appears to suggest the gathering of his thoughts together into one distinct expression, or to be _pointed_ in what he wishes to say.

_Crafty, deceitful_, Fig. 101. The little fingers of both reversed hands are hooked together, the others open but slightly curved, and, with the hands, moved several times to the right and left. The gesture is intended to represent a crab and the tortuous movements of the crustacean, which are likened to those of a man who cannot be depended on in his walk through life. He is not straight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 101.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 102.]

Figs. 102 and 103 are different positions of the hand in which the approximating thumb and forefinger form a circle. This is the direst insult that can be given. The amiable canon De Jorio only hints at its special significance, but it may be evident to persons aware of a practice disgraceful to Italy. It is very ancient.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 103.]

Fig. 104 is easily recognized as a request or command to be _silent_, either on the occasion or on the subject. The mouth, supposed to be forcibly closed, prevents speaking, and the natural gesture, as might be supposed, is historically ancient, but the instance, frequently adduced from the att.i.tude of the G.o.d Harpokrates, whose finger is on his lips, is an error. The Egyptian hieroglyphists, notably in the designation of Horus, their dawn-G.o.d, used the finger in or on the lips for "child." It has been conjectured in the last instance that the gesture implied, not the mode of taking nourishment, but inability to speak--_in-fans_. This conjecture, however, was only made to explain the blunder of the Greeks, who saw in the hand placed connected with the mouth in the hieroglyph of Horus (the) son, "Hor-(p)-chrot," the gesture familiar to themselves of a finger on the lips to express "silence," and so, mistaking both the name and the characterization, invented the G.o.d of Silence, Harpokrates. A careful examination of all the linear hieroglyphs given by Champollion (_Dictionnaire Egyptien_) shows that the finger or the hand to the mouth of an adult (whose posture is always distinct from that of a child) is always in connection with the positive ideas of voice, mouth, speech, writing, eating, drinking, &c., and never with the negative idea of silence. The special character for _child_, Fig.

105, always has the above-mentioned part of the sign with reference to nourishment from the breast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105.]

Fig. 106 is a forcible _negation_. The outer ends of the fingers united in a point under the chin are violently thrust forward. This is the rejection of an idea or proposition, the same conception being executed in several different modes by the North American Indians.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 106.]

Fig. 107 signifies _hunger_, and is made by extending the thumb and index under the open mouth and turning them horizontally and vertically several times. The idea is emptiness and desire to be filled. It is also expressed by beating the ribs with the flat hands, to show that the sides meet or are weak for the want of something between them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 107.]

Fig. 108 is made in mocking and ridicule. The open and oscillating hand touches the point of the nose with that of the thumb. It has the particular sense of stigmatizing the person addressed or in question as a dupe. A credulous person is generally imagined with a gaping mouth and staring eyes, and as thrusting forward his face, with pendant chin, so that the nose is well advanced and therefore most prominent in the profile. A dupe is therefore called _naso lungo_ or long-nose, and with Italian writers "_restare con un palmo di naso_"--to be left with a palm's length of nose--means to have met with loss, injury, or disappointment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 108.]

The thumb stroking the forehead from one side to the other, Fig. 109, is a natural sign of _fatigue_, and of the physical toil that produces fatigue. The wiping off of perspiration is obviously indicated. This gesture is often used ironically.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 109.]

As a _dupe_ was shown above, now the _duper_ is signified, by Fig.

110. The gesture is to place the fingers between the cravat and the neck and rub the latter with the back of the hand. The idea is that the deceit is put within the cravat, taken in and down, similar to our phrase to "swallow" a false and deceitful story, and a "cram" is also an English slang word for an incredible lie. The conception of the slang term is nearly related to that of the Neapolitan sign, viz., the artificial enlargement of the oesophagus of the person victimized or on whom imposition is attempted to be practiced, which is necessary to take it down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 110.]

Fig. 111 shows the ends of the index and thumb stroking the two sides of the nose from base to point. This means _astute, attentive, ready_.

Sharpness of the nasal organ is popularly a.s.sociated with subtlety and finesse. The old Romans by _h.o.m.o emunctae naris_ meant an acute man attentive to his interests. The sign is often used in a bad sense, then signifying _too_ sharp to be trusted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 111.]

This somewhat lengthy but yet only partial list of Neapolitan gesture-signs must conclude with one common throughout Italy, and also among us with a somewhat different signification, yet perhaps also derived from cla.s.sic times. To express suspicion of a person the forefinger of the right hand is placed upon the side of the nose. It means _tainted_, not sound. It is used to give an unfavorable report of a person inquired of and to warn against such.