Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 44

(45) Repeated No. 23 (_the Mescaleros_).

(46) Held hands in position of aiming a gun--left oblique--(_shoot_).

(47) Waved right index briskly before right shoulder (_no, did not; negation_).

(48) Swept his hand from behind forward, palm up (Y) (_the others came_).

(49) Repeated No. 5 (_and shot_).

(50) Repeated No. 23 (_the Mescaleros_).

(51) Repeated No. 7 (_many dead_).

(52) Repeated No. 8 (_soldiers_).

(53) Repeated No. 10 (_horse, mounted_).

(54) Hand forward, palm down (W) moved forward and up and down (_walking_, i.e., _infantry_).

(55) Beckoned with right hand, two fingers curved (N horizontal and curved) (_came_).

(56) Repeated No. 11 (_marching_).

(57) Repeated No. 28 (_to this camp, or village_).

(58) Repeated No. 23 (_with Mescaleros_).

(59) Repeated No. 24 (_as prisoners, surrounded_).

(60) Repeated No. 33 (_San Carlos scouts_).

(61) Placed hands, spread out (R inverted), tips down, about waist (_many cartridges_).

(62) Repeated No. 46 (_and guns_).

(63) Repeated No. 5 (_shot many_).

(64) Repeated No. 4 (_Warm Spring Apaches_).

(65) Repeated No. 23 (_and Mescaleros_).

(66) Moved fist--thumb to head--across his forehead from right to left, and cast it toward earth over left shoulder (_brave_, i.e., _the San Carlos scouts are brave_).

CONTINUOUS TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE.

Far westward beyond the Rio Grande are the Warm Spring Apaches, who killed many Mexicans and soldiers and stole their horses. They (the Warm Spring Apaches) are bad and fools.

Some cavalry came here under an aged officer of high rank, but of inferior intelligence, to capture the Mescalero Indians.

The Mescaleros wished to have their village permanently here by the agency, and to receive their rations, i.e., were peacefully inclined.

Our village was over there. I saw the general come with troops and San Carlos scouts to surround (or capture) the Mescalero Indians. There were a great many San Carlos scouts and soldiers.

I saw that my people were afraid, and half of them fled.

Next morning the Mescaleros did not shoot (were not hostile). The others came and killed many Mescaleros. The cavalry and infantry brought us (the Mescaleros) to this camp as prisoners.

The San Carlos scouts were well supplied with ammunition and guns, and shot many Warm Spring Indians and Mescaleros.

The San Carlos scouts are brave men.

_NA-WA-GI-JIG'S STORY._

The following is contributed by Mr. FRANCIS JACKER:

This narrative was related to me by _John Na-wa-gi-jig_ (literally "noon-day sky"), an aged Ojibwa, with whom I have been intimately connected for a long period of years. He delivered his story, referring to one of the many incidents in his perilous life, orally, but with pantomimes so graphic and vivid that it may be presented truly as a specimen of gesture language. Indeed, to any one familiar with Indian mimicry, the story might have been intelligible without the expedient of verbal language, while the oral exposition, incoherent as it was, could hardly be styled anything better than the subordinate part of the delivery. I have endeavored to reproduce these gestures in their original connections from memory, omitting the verbal accompaniment as far as practicable. In order to facilitate a clear understanding it is stated that the gesturer was in a sitting posture before a camp fire by the lake sh.o.r.e, and facing the locality where the event referred to had actually occurred, viz, a portion of Keweenaw Bay, Lake Superior, in the neighborhood of Portage Entry, as seen by the annexed diagram, Fig. 319. The time of the relation (latter part of April) also coincided with the _actual_ time. In speaking of "arm," "hand," "finger," &c., the "right" is understood if not otherwise specified. "Finger" stands for "forefinger."

(1) With the exclamation "_me-wi-ja_" (a long time ago), uttered in a slow and peculiarly emphatic manner, he elevated the arm above and toward the right at the head, accompanying the motion with an upward wave of the hand and held it thus suspended a moment--_a long time ago_. (This gesture resembles sign for _time, a long_, of which it seems to be an abbreviation, and it is not sufficiently clear without the accompanying exclamation.) Withdrawing it slowly, he placed the hand back upon his knee.

(2) He then brought up the left hand toward the temple and tapped his hair, which was gray, with the finger--_hair gray_.

(3) From thence he carried it down upon the thigh, placing the extended finger perpendicularly upon a fold of his trousers, which the thumb and finger of the right held grasped in such a manner as to advantageously present the smooth black surface of the cloth--_of that color_, i.e., _black_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 319--Scene of Na-wa-gi-jig's story.]

(4) Next, with a powerful strain of the muscles, he slowly stretched out the right arm and fist and grasping the arm about the elbow with the left, he raised the forearm perpendicularly upward, then brought it down with force, tightening the grasp in doing so (fingers pressing upon knuckle, thumb against pit of elbow)--_strength_.

(5) Pointing first at me--_you_.

(6) He next held out the hand horizontally and flat, palm downward, about four feet above the ground, correcting the measure a moment afterward by elevating hand a few inches higher, and estimated the height thus indicated with a telling look, leaning the head toward the side--_about that height_, i.e., _a youth of about that size_.

(7) He then rapidly extended the arm about two-thirds of its length forward and toward the right, terminating the motion with a jerk of the hand upward, palm turned outward, and accompanied the motion with a nod of the head, the hand in its downfall closing and dropping upon knee--_very well_.

(8) Musing a few moments, he next slowly extended the arm and pointed with the fingers toward and along the surface of the frozen bay--_out there_.

(9) In an easterly direction--_eastward_.

(10) Thence turning the arm to the right he nodded the finger toward a projection of land southward at a distance of about two miles--following in each case the direction of the finger with the eyes--and immediately after placed the hand again eastward, indicating the spot with the same emphatic nod of the finger as though carrying the visible distance to a spot upon the expanse of the bay, which, bearing no object, could not be marked otherwise--_two miles out there_.

(11) Carrying the finger toward the body, he touched his breast--_I myself_.

(12) Thence erected the hand, turning its palm forward, forefinger perpendicularly extended, others slightly closed, and nodded it downward in an explanatory manner, all in an uninterrupted movement--_one_, meaning in connection with the preceding gesture--_I for one_.

(13) Again, with an emphatic movement, he turned the hand upward, slightly erecting the index, thumb pointing forward, remaining fingers partially and naturally opened and more or less separated--_furthermore_.

(14) Then quickly and after a moment's stop brought down the hand to a horizontal position, first and second fingers joining and fully extending during the movement, and pointing forward--_another_, i.e., _joined by another_. Repeating this motion, he at the same time called out the name _Ga-bi-wa-bi-ko-ke_.