Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples Part 14

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 186.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 187.]

The same authority gives two signs for _lightning_, Figs. 186 and 187.

In the latter the sky is shown, the changing direction of the streak, and clouds with rain falling. The part relating specially to the streak is portrayed in a sign as follows: Right hand elevated before and above the head, forefinger pointing upward, brought down with great rapidity with a sinuous, undulating motion; finger still extended diagonally downward toward the right. (_Cheyenne_ II.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 188.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 189.]

Figs. 188 and 189 also represent _lightning_, taken by Mr. W.H.

Jackson, photographer of the late U.S. Geolog. and Geog. Survey, from the decorated walls of an estufa in the Pueblo de Jemez, New Mexico.

The former is blunt, for harmless, and the latter terminating in an arrow or spear point, for destructive or fatal, lightning.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 190.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 191.]

A common sign for _speech, speak_, among the Indians is the repeated motion of the index in a straight line forward from the mouth. This line, indicating the voice, is shown in Fig. 190, taken from the _Dakota Calendar_, being the expression for the fact that "the-Elk-that-hollows-walking," a Minneconjou chief, "made medicine."

The ceremony is indicated by the head of an albino buffalo. A more graphic portraiture of the conception of _voice_ is in Fig. 191, representing an antelope and the whistling sound produced by the animal on being surprised or alarmed. This is taken from MS. drawing book of an Indian prisoner at Saint Augustine, Fla., now in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, No. 30664.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 192.]

Fig. 192 is the exhibition of wrestling for a turkey, the point of interest in the present connection being the lines from the mouth to the objects of conversation. It is taken from the above-mentioned MS.

drawing book.

The wrestlers, according to the foot prints, had evidently come together, when, meeting the returning hunter, who is wrapped in his blanket with only one foot protruding, they separated and threw off their blankets, leggings, and moccasins, both endeavoring to win the turkey, which lies between them and the donor.

In Fig. 193, taken from the same MS. drawing book, the conversation is about the la.s.soing, shooting, and final killing of a buffalo which has wandered to a camp. The dotted lines indicate footprints. The Indian drawn under the buffalo having secured the animal by the fore feet, so informs his companions, as indicated by the line drawn from his mouth to the object mentioned; the left-hand figure, having also secured the buffalo by the horns, gives his nearest comrade an opportunity to strike it with an ax, which he no doubt announces that he will do, as the line from his mouth to the head of the animal suggests. The Indian in the upper left-hand corner is told by a squaw to take an arrow and join his companions, when he turns his head to inform her that he has one already, which fact he demonstrates by holding up the weapon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 193.]

The Mexican pictograph, Fig. 194, taken from Kingsborough, II, pt. 1, p. 100, is ill.u.s.trative of the sign made by the Arikara and Hidatsa for _tell_ and _conversation_. _Tell me_ is: Place the flat right hand, palm upward, about fifteen inches in front of the right side of the face, fingers pointing to the left and front; then draw the hand inward toward and against the bottom of the chin. For _conversation_, talking between two persons, both hands are held before the breast, pointing forward, palms up, the edges being moved several times toward one another. Perhaps, however, the picture in fact only means the common poetical image of "flying words."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 194.]

Fig. 195 is one of Landa's characters, found in _Rel. des choses de Yucatan_ p. 316, and suggests one of the gestures for _talk_ and more especially that for _sing_, in which the extended and separated fingers are pa.s.sed forward and slightly downward from the mouth--"many voices." Although the last opinion about the bishop is unfavorable to the authenticity of his work, yet even if it were prepared by a Maya, under his supervision, the latter would probably have given him some genuine native conceptions, and among them gestures would be likely to occur.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 195.]

The natural sign for _hear_, made both by Indians and deaf-mutes, consisting in the motion of the index, or the index and thumb joined, in a straight line to the ear, is ill.u.s.trated in the Ojibwa pictograph Fig. 196, "hearing ears," and those of the same people, Figs. 197 and 198, the latter of which is a hearing serpent, and the former means "I hear, but your words are from a bad heart," the hands being thrown out as in the final part of a gesture for _bad heart_, which is made by the hand being closed and held near the breast, with the back toward the breast, then as the arm is suddenly extended the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other. (_Mandan and Hidatsa_ I.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 196.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 197.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 198.]

The final part of the gesture, representing the idea of _bad_, not connected with heart, is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 236 on page 411.

The above Ojibwa pictographs are taken from Schoolcraft, _loc. cit._ I, plates 58, 53, 59.

Fig. 199, a bas-relief taken from Dupaix's Monuments of New Spain, in Kingsborough, _loc. cit._ IV, pt. 3, p. 31, has been considered to be a royal edict or command. The gesture _to hear_ is plainly depicted, and the right hand is directed to the persons addressed, so the command appears to be uttered with the preface of _Hear Ye! Oyez!_

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 199.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 200.]

The typical sign for _kill_ or _killed_ is: Right hand clinched, thumb lying along finger tips, elevated to near the shoulder, strike downward and outward vaguely in the direction of the object to be killed. The abbreviated sign is simply to clinch the right hand in the manner described and strike it down and out from the right side.

(_Cheyenne_ II.) This gesture, also appears among the Dakotas and is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 200.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 201.]

Fig. 201, taken from the _Dakota Calendar_, ill.u.s.trates this gesture.

It represents the year in which a Minneconjou chief was stabbed in the shoulder by a Gros Ventre, and afterwards named "Dead Arm" or "Killed Arm." At first the figure was supposed to show the permanent drawing up of the arm by anchylosis, but that would not be likely to be the result of the wound described, and with knowledge of the gesture the meaning is more clear.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 202.]

Fig. 202, taken from _Report upon the Reconnaissance of Northwestern Wyoming, &c., Was.h.i.+ngton_, 1875, p. 207, Fig. 53, found in the Wind River Valley, Wyoming Territory, was interpreted by members of a Shoshoni and Banak delegation to Was.h.i.+ngton in 1880 as "an Indian killed another." The latter is very roughly delineated in the horizontal figure, but is also represented by the line under the hand of the upright figure, meaning the same individual. At the right is the scalp taken and the two feathers showing the dead warrior's rank.

The arm nearest the prostrate foe shows the gesture for _killed_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 203.]

The same gesture appears in Fig. 203, from the same authority and locality. The scalp is here held forth, and the numeral _one_ is designated by the stroke at the bottom.

Fig. 204, from the same locality and authority, was also interpreted by the Shoshoni and Banak. It appears from their description that a Blackfoot had attacked the habitation of some of his own people. The right-hand upper figure represents his horse with the lance suspended from the side. The lower figure ill.u.s.trates the log house built against a stream. The dots are the prints of the horse's hoofs, while the two lines running outward from the upper inclosure show that two thrusts of the lance were made over the wall of the house, thus killing the occupant and securing two bows and five arrows, as represented in the left-hand group. The right-hand figure of that group shows the hand raised in the att.i.tude of making the gesture for _kill_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 204.]

As the Blackfeet, according to the interpreters, were the only Indians in the locality mentioned who constructed log houses, the drawing becomes additionally interesting, as an attempt appears to have been made to ill.u.s.trate the crossing of the logs at the corners, the gesture for which (_log-house_) will be found on page 428.

Fig. 205 is the Egyptian character for _veneration, to glorify_ (Champollion, _Dict._, 29), the author's understanding being that the hands are raised in surprise, astonishment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 205.]

The Menomoni Indians now begin their prayers by raising their hands in the same manner. They may have been influenced in this respect by the att.i.tudes of their missionaries in prayer and benediction. The Apaches, who have received less civilized tuition, in a religious gesture corresponding with prayer spread their hands opposite the face, palms up and backward, apparently expressing the desire to _receive_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 206.]

Fig. 206 is a copy of an Egyptian tablet reproduced from Cooper's _Serpent Myths_, page 28. A priest kneels before the great G.o.ddess Ranno, while supplicating her favor. The conception of the author is that the hands are raised by the supplicant to s.h.i.+eld his face from the glory of the divinity. It may be compared with signs for asking for _mercy_ and for giving mercy to another, the former being: Extend both forefingers, pointing upward, palms toward the breast, and hold the hands before the chest; then draw them inward toward their respective sides, and pa.s.s them up ward as high as the sides of the head by either cheek. (_Kaiowa_ I; _Comanche_ III; _Apache_ II; _Wichita_ II.) The latter, _to have mercy on another_, as made by the same tribes, is: Hold both hands nearly side by side before the chest, palms forward, forefinger only extended and pointing upward; then move them forward and upward, as if pa.s.sing them by the cheeks of another person from the breast to the sides of the head.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 207.]

A similar gesture for _supplication_ appears in Fig. 207, taken from Kingsborough, _loc. cit._, III, pt. I, p. 24.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 208.]

An Indian gesture sign for _smoke_, and also one for _fire_, has been described above, page 344. With the former is connected the Aztec design (Fig. 208) taken from Pipart, _loc. cit._, II, 352, and the latter appears in Fig. 209, taken from Kingsborough, III, pt. I, p.

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