Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 10

In Klamath the radix _lam_ designates a whirling motion, and appears in the word _lama_, "to be crazy, mad," readily correlated with the common gesture for _madman_ and _fool_, in which the hand is rotated above and near the head.

_Evening_, in Klamath, is _litkhi_, from _luta_, to hang down, meaning the time when the sun hangs down, the gesture for which, described elsewhere in this paper (see Natci's Narrative, page 503), is executive of the same conception, which is allied to the etymology usually given for _eve, even_, "the decline of the day." These Klamath etymologies have been kindly contributed by Mr. A.S. Gatschet.

The Very Rev. E. Jacker also communicates a suggestive _excursus exegeticus_ upon the probable gestural origin of the Ojibwa word _tibishko_, "opposite in s.p.a.ce; just so; likewise:"

"The adverb _tibishko_ (or _dibishko_) is an offshoot of the root _tib_ (or _dib_), which in most cases conveys the idea of measuring or weighing, as appears from the following samples: _dibaige_, he measures; _dibowe_, he settles matters by his speech or word, e.g., as a juryman; _dibaamage_, he pays out; _dibakonige_, he judges; _dibabishkodjige_, he weighs; _dibamenimo_, he restricts himself, e.g., to a certain quant.i.ty of food; _dibissitchige_, he fulfills a promise; _dibijigan_, a pattern for cutting clothes.

"The original, meaning of _tib_, however, must be supposed to have been more comprehensive, if we would explain other (apparent) derivatives, such as: _tibi_, 'I don't know where, where to, where from,' &c.; _tibik_, night; _dibendjige_, he is master or owner; _t.i.tibisse_, it rolls (as a ball), it turns (as a wheel); _dibaboweigan_, the cover of a kettle. The notion of measuring does not very naturally enter into the ideas expressed by these terms.

"The difficulty disappears if we a.s.sume the root _tib_ or _dib_ to have been originally the phonetic equivalent of a _gesture_ expressive of the notion of covering as well as of that of measuring. This gesture would seem to be the holding of one hand above the other, horizontally, at some distance, palms opposite or both downwards.

This, or some similar gesture would most naturally accompany the above terms. As for _tibik_, night, compare (_Dunbar_): 'The two hands open and extended, crossing one another horizontally.' The idea of covering evidently enters into this conception. The strange adverb _tibi_ ('I don't know where,' &c., or 'in a place unknown to me'), if derived from the same root, would originally signify 'covered.' In _t.i.tibisse_, or _didibisse_ (it rolls, it turns), the reduplication of the radical syllable indicates the repet.i.tion of the gesture, by holding the hands alternately above one another, palms downwards, and thus producing a rotary motion.

"In German, the clasping of the hands in a horizontal position, expressive of a promise or the conclusion of a bargain, is frequently accompanied by the interjection _top!_ the same radical consonants as in _tib_. Compare also the English _tap_, the French _tape_, the Greek, [Greek: tupto] the Sanscrit _tup_ and _tub_, &c."

GESTURES CONNECTED WITH THE ORIGIN OF WRITING.

Though written characters are generally a.s.sociated with speech, they are shown, by successful employment in hieroglyphs and by educated deaf-mutes to be representative of ideas without the intervention of sounds, and so also are the outlines of signs. This will be more apparent if the motions expressing the most prominent feature, attribute, or function of an object are made, or supposed to be made, so as to leave a luminous track impressible upon the eye separate from the members producing it. The actual result is an immateriate graphic representation of visible objects and qualities which, invested with substance, has become familiar to us as the _rebus_, and also appears in the form of heraldic blazonry styled punning or "canting."

Gesture language is, in fact, not only a picture language, but is actual writing, though dissolving and sympathetic, and neither alphabetic nor phonetic.

Dalgarno aptly says: "_Qui enim caput nutat, oculo connivet, digitum movet in aere, &c., (ad mentis cogitata exprimendum); is non minus vere scribit, quam qui Literas pingit in Charta, Marmore, vel aere._"

It is neither necessary nor proper to enter now upon any prolonged account of the origin, of alphabetic writing. There is, however, propriety, if not necessity, for the present writer, when making any remarks under this heading and under some others in this paper indicating special lines of research, to disclaim all pretension to being a Sinologue or Egyptologist, or even profoundly versed in Mexican antiquities. His partial and recently commenced studies only enable him to present suggestions for the examination of scholars.

These suggestions may safely be introduced by the statement that the common modern alphabetic characters, coming directly from the Romans, were obtained by them from the Greeks, and by the latter from the Phoenicians, whose alphabet was connected with that of the old Hebrew.

It has also been of late the general opinion that the whole family of alphabets to which the Greek, Latin, Gothic, Runic, and others belong, appearing earlier in the Phoenician, Moabite, and Hebrew, had its beginning in the ideographic pictures of the Egyptians, afterwards used by them to express sounds. That the Chinese, though in a different manner from the Egyptians, pa.s.sed from picture writing to phonetic writing, is established by delineations still extant among them, called _ku-wan_, or "ancient pictures," with which some of the modern written characters can be identified. The ancient Mexicans also, to some extent, developed phonetic expressions out of a very elaborate system of ideographic picture writing. a.s.suming that ideographic pictures made by ancient peoples would be likely to contain representations of gesture signs, which subject is treated of below, it is proper to examine if traces of such gesture signs may not be found in the Egyptian, Chinese, and Aztec characters. Only a few presumptive examples, selected from a considerable number, are now presented in which the signs of the North American Indians appear to be included, with the hope that further investigation by collaborators will establish many more instances not confined to Indian signs.

A typical sign made by the Indians for _no, negation_, is as follows: The hand extended or slightly curved is held in front of the body, a little to the right of the median line; it is then carried with a rapid sweep a foot or more farther to the right. (_Mandan and Hidatsa_ I.)

One for _none, nothing_, sometimes used for simple negation, is also given: Throw both hands outward toward their respective sides from the breast. (_Wyandot_ I.)

With these compare the two forms of the Egyptian character for _no_, _negation_, Fig. 118, taken from Champollion, _Grammaire egyptienne_, _Paris_, 1836, p. 519.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 118.]

No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands indicated at the extremities of arms extended symmetrically from the body on each side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119.]

Also compare the Maya character for the same idea of negation, Fig.

119, found in Landa, _Relation des Choses de Yucatan_, _Paris_, 1864, 316. The Maya word for negation is "_ma_," and the word "_mak_,"

a six-foot measuring rod, given by Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg in his dictionary, apparently having connection with this character, would in use separate the hands as ill.u.s.trated, giving the same form as the gesture made without the rod.

Another sign for _nothing, none_, made by the Comanches, is: Flat hand thrown forward, back to the ground, fingers pointing forward and downward. Frequently the right hand is brushed over the left thus thrown out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 120.]

Compare the Chinese character for the same meaning, Fig. 120. This will not be recognized as a hand without study of similar characters, which generally have a cross-line cutting off the wrist. Here the wrist bones follow under the cross cut, then the metacarpal bones, and last the fingers, pointing forward and downward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 121.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 122.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 123.]

The Arapaho sign for _child, baby_, is the forefinger in the mouth, i.e., a nursing child, and a natural sign of a deaf-mute is the same.

The Egyptian figurative character for the same is seen in Fig.

121. Its linear form is Fig. 122, and its hieratic is Fig. 123 (Champollion, _Dictionnaire Egyptien_, _Paris_, 1841, p. 31.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 124.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 126.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 127.]

These afford an interpretation to the ancient Chinese form for _son_, Fig. 124, given in _Journ. Royal Asiatic Society_, I, 1834, p. 219, as belonging to the Shang dynasty, 1756, 1112 B.C., and the modern Chinese form, Fig. 125, which, without the comparison, would not be supposed to have any pictured reference to an infant with hand or finger at or approaching the mouth, denoting the taking of nourishment. Having now suggested this, the Chinese character for _birth_, Fig. 126, is understood as the expression of a common gesture among the Indians, particularly reported from the Dakota, for _born_, _to be born_, viz: Place the left hand in front of the body, a little to the right, the palm downward and slightly arched, then pa.s.s the extended right hand downward, forward, and upward, forming a short curve underneath the left, as in Fig. 127 (_Dakota_ V). This is based upon the curve followed by the head of the child during birth, and is used generically. The same curve, when made with one hand, appears in Fig. 128.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 128.]

It may be of interest to compare with the Chinese _child_ the Mexican abbreviated character for _man_, Fig. 129, found in Pipart in _Compte Rendu Cong. Inter. des Americanistes, 2me Session_, _Luxembourg_, 1877, 1878, II, 359. The figure on the right is called the abbreviated form of that by its side, yet its origin may be different.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 129.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 130.]

The Chinese character for _man_, is Fig. 130, and may have the same obvious conception as a Dakota sign for the same signification: "Place the extended index, pointing upward and forward before the lower portion of the abdomen."

The Chinese specific character for _woman_ is Fig. 131, the cross mark denoting the wrist, and if the remainder be considered the hand, the fingers may be imagined in the position made by many tribes, and especially the Utes, as depicting the _pudendum muliebre_, Fig. 132.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 131.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 132.]

The Egyptian generic character for _female_ is [Symbol: semicircle]

(Champollion, _Dict._,) believed to represent the curve of the mammae supposed to be cut off or separated from the chest, and the gesture with the same meaning was made by the Cheyenne t.i.tchkematski, and photographed, as in Fig. 133. It forms the same figure as the Egyptian character as well as can be done by a position of the human hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 133.]

The Chinese character for _to give water_ is Fig. 134, which may be compared with the common Indian gesture _to drink, to give water_, viz: "Hand held with tips of fingers brought together and pa.s.sed to the mouth, as if scooping up water", Fig. 135, obviously from the primitive custom, as with Mojaves, who still drink with scooped hands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 134.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 135.]

Another common Indian gesture sign for _water to drink, I want to drink_, is: "Hand brought downward past the mouth with loosely extended fingers, palm toward the face." This appears in the Mexican character for _drink_, Fig. 136, taken from Pipart, _loc. cit._, p.

351. _Water_, i.e., the pouring out of water with the drops falling or about to fall, is shown in Fig. 137, taken from the same author (p.

349), being the same arrangement of them as in the sign for _rain_, Fig. 114, p. 344, the hand, however, being inverted. _Rain_ in the Mexican picture writing is shown by small circles inclosing a dot, as in the last two figures, but not connected together, each having a short line upward marking the line of descent.