The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSign talk

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSign talkThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Sign talka universal signal code, without apparatus, for use in the Army, the Navy, camping, hunting, and daily lifeAuthor: Ernest Thompson SetonOther: Hugh Lenox ScottTranslator: Lillian Delger PowersRelease date: January 16, 2016 [eBook #50938]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Jennifer Linklater, and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN TALK ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Sign talka universal signal code, without apparatus, for use in the Army, the Navy, camping, hunting, and daily lifeAuthor: Ernest Thompson SetonOther: Hugh Lenox ScottTranslator: Lillian Delger PowersRelease date: January 16, 2016 [eBook #50938]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Jennifer Linklater, and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)

Title: Sign talk

a universal signal code, without apparatus, for use in the Army, the Navy, camping, hunting, and daily life

Author: Ernest Thompson SetonOther: Hugh Lenox ScottTranslator: Lillian Delger Powers

Author: Ernest Thompson Seton

Other: Hugh Lenox Scott

Translator: Lillian Delger Powers

Release date: January 16, 2016 [eBook #50938]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Jennifer Linklater, and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN TALK ***

SIGN TALKA Universal Signal Code, Without Apparatus, for Use in the Army, the Navy, Camping, Hunting, and Daily LifeByErnest Thompson SetonAuthor of “Wild Animals I Have Known,” “Life Histories of Northern Animals,” “The Book of Woodcraft,” etc., etc.Chief of the Woodcraft League of AmericaTHE GESTURE LANGUAGE OF THE CHEYENNE INDIANSWith additional Signs used by other tribes, also a few necessary Signs from the code of the Deaf in Europe and America, and others that are established among our Policemen, Firemen, Railroad Men, and School ChildrenIN ALL 1,725Prepared with assistance from General Hugh L. Scott, U. S. A.The French and German equivalent words added by Lillian Delger Powers, M. D.700 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHORGARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1918

A Universal Signal Code, Without Apparatus, for Use in the Army, the Navy, Camping, Hunting, and Daily Life

ByErnest Thompson Seton

Author of “Wild Animals I Have Known,” “Life Histories of Northern Animals,” “The Book of Woodcraft,” etc., etc.Chief of the Woodcraft League of America

THE GESTURE LANGUAGE OF THE CHEYENNE INDIANS

With additional Signs used by other tribes, also a few necessary Signs from the code of the Deaf in Europe and America, and others that are established among our Policemen, Firemen, Railroad Men, and School Children

IN ALL 1,725

Prepared with assistance from General Hugh L. Scott, U. S. A.

The French and German equivalent words added by Lillian Delger Powers, M. D.

700 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1918

Copyright, 1918, byErnest Thompson Seton

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

PREFACEIn offering this book to the public after having had the manuscript actually on my desk for more than nine years, let me say frankly that no one realizes better than myself, now, the magnitude of the subject and the many faults of my attempt to handle it.My attention was first directed to the Sign Language in 1882 when I went to live in Western Manitoba. There I found it used among the various Indian tribes as a common language, whenever they were unable to understand each other’s speech. In later years I found it a daily necessity when traveling among the natives of New Mexico and Montana, and in 1897, while living among the Crow Indians at their agency near Fort Custer, I met White Swan, who had served under General George A. Custer as a Scout. He had been sent across country with a message to Major Reno, so escaped the fatal battle; but fell in with a party of Sioux, by whom he was severely wounded, clubbed on the head, and left for dead. He recovered and escaped, but ever after was deaf and practically dumb. However, sign-talk was familiar to his people and he was at little disadvantage in daytime. Always skilled in the gesture code, he now became very expert; I was glad indeed to be his pupil, and thus in 1897 began seriously to study the Sign Language.In 1900 I included a chapter on Sign Language in myprojected Woodcraft Dictionary, and began by collecting all the literature. There was much more than I expected, for almost all early travellers in our Western Country have had something to say about thislingua francaof the Plains.As the material continued to accumulate, the chapter grew into a Dictionary, and the work, of course, turned out manifold greater than was expected. The Deaf, our School children, and various European nations, as well as the Indians, had large sign vocabularies needing consideration. With all important print on the subject I am fairly well conversant, besides which I have had large opportunities in the field and have tried to avail myself of them to the fullest extent, carrying my manuscript from one Indian tribe to another, seeking out always the best sign-talkers among them, collecting and revising, aiming to add all the best signs in use to those already on record.The following are the chief printed works on Sign Language:1823. The Indian Language of Signsby Major Stephen H. Long, published in his Expedition to the Rocky Mts., 1823, Vol. I, pp. 378–394. Gives 104 signs. The earliest extensive vocabulary on record.1880. Gesture Signs and Signals of the North American Indiansby Lieut. Col. Garrick Mallery. An elaborate and valuable 330 page quarto compilation from many contributors; published by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880.It was preliminary to the much more extended work published the year following, and combines in itself all the important vocabularies published up to that time, including:Wm. Dunbar’s Listpub. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., January 16, 1801; about 60 signs;Prince Maximilian von Wied-Neuwied’s List, Reise, Nord. Am., 1832–34, 1837;Capt. R. F. Burton’s Listpub. in “The City of the Saints,” 1862;Dr. D. G. MacGowan’s Listpub. inHistorical Magazine, Vol. X, 1866, pp. 86–97; also Manuscript Lists supplied byCol. R. I. Dodge,Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. A., and about forty other contributors.1881. Sign Language Among the North American Indianscompared with that among other peoples and Deaf Mutes, by Col. Garrick Mallery; 290 page quarto, 286 illustrations, an elaborate examination of the history, origin, and nature of the Sign Language, with extensive vocabularies. Published in 1st Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1881.1885. The Indian Sign Languageby Capt. William Philo Clark, U. S. A., 244 pp. octavo, quite the best book on the subject, giving over 1,000 signs with photographic exactness; it is also one of the best early encyclopedic books on Indians in general; unfortunately, it is without illustrations and is out of print. Published by Hamersly & Co., of Philadelphia, 1885.This is practically the only publication quoted in preparing this work. I have referred to it continually as a standard—as the highest available authority. (W. P. Clark was born July 27, 1845, at Deer River, Lewis Co., New York. Graduated from West Point June 15, 1868. Served on the Plains in 2d Cavalry during the Indianwars of 1876 to 1880. Died at Washington, D. C., September 23, 1884.)HADLEY INDIAN SIGN PRINTSAbout twenty-five years ago there lived in Anadarko, Indian Territory, an enthusiastic missionary worker named Lewis F. Hadley, known to the Indians as Ingonompashi.He made a study of Sign Language in order to furnish the Indians with a pictographic writing, based on diagrams of the signs, and meant to be read by all Indians, without regard to their speech. Pointing to the Chinese writing as a model and parallel, he made a Sign Language font of 4,000 pictographic types for use in his projected works. He maintained that 110,793 Indians were at that time sign-talkers and he proposed to reach them by Sign-Language publications.In pursuance of his plan, he issued the following:1887. List of the Primary Gestures in Indian Sign Talk.“Only 19 copies were printed.” It was intended as a prodrome to “extended works and a magazine in Hands-tal[k]ing.”It consists of 63 pages with 684 crude woodblocks of white lines on black ground, illustrating signs, alphabetically arranged, but without captions or text of any kind, except the explanation on the title page, abridged as above.1890. A Lesson in Sign Talk, designed to show the use of the line showing the movement of the hands in the Indian Gesture Language, by In-go-nom-pa-shi, Fort Smith, Ark., 1890. Copyrighted by Lewis F. Hadley, 12 pp. A portrait of him by himself is on p. 11, inscribed “In-go-nom-pa-shi, drawn by himself at 60 years.”It devotes 3 pages to general discussion of Sign Talk, 1½ pages to reform of our spelling, the rest is given to general remarks with 12 poor illustrations in white line, also a Scripture text with 15 signs drawn, the Lord’s Prayer with 55 drawn signs, and on p. 12, The Indian Little Star, a novel version of “Twinkle, Twinkle,” rendered in 97 drawn signs.1893. Indian Sign Talk.Being a Book of Proofs of the matter printed or equivalent cards designed for teaching sign-talking Indians as much English as can be explained through the medium of their “Universal” Gesture Language, by Ingonompashi, copyrighted May 15, 1893, “only 75 copies are saved.”This is Hadley’s most extended work. It is a dictionary of the Sign Language, in 268 large octavo leaves printed on one side only of each sheet.It consists of 9 pages of Preface and general matter, 192 pp. of dictionary alphabetically arranged, each page having three gestures figured and beside each the equivalent in English. A total of 577 signs (including a double). Pages 193 to 205 are given to small reproductions of the sign drawings to illustrate “measurements of type”—his font—about 800 illustrations, two pages of appendix with compound sign words, and 14 illustrations, 1 page of black type, 18 in number, 53 pages of reading matter in signs, the above cited version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and the story of “Wolf and the White Man” in signs; the rest being Scripture texts and exhortations and the 19th Psalm, ending with the Lord’s Prayer.The cards referred to I have. They consist of 571 separate cards with an illustrated sign on each and additional matter on the back. Besides which there areabout 100 separate cards each with a scripture text, chapter, or sermonette on it, about 1,000 illustrations in all. The same being the matter of the dictionary proper reproduced on separate cards, the diagram on one side and the text on the other. The front matter and the type measurements do not, however, appear on the cards. Though poor as art, the drawings are of some value to the student.This is the most ambitious work extant on the subject of Sign Language, but seems to be quite unknown to most ethnologists, and is not in any library, so far as I can learn, except the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, the Library of Prof. J. C. Elsom of Wisconsin State University, and my own collection.Of the 75 copies issued, only these 5 have been accounted for, but cards comprising the dictionary part were issued to the extent of 100,000 in sets of 571 each, and the reading matter on cards to the number of over 27,000.1910. The Sign Language, by Prof. J. Schuyler Long, State School for the Deaf, Council Bluffs, Iowa, published at Washington, D. C., 1910. A valuable dictionary of about 1,500 signs used by the deaf, with 500 admirable photographic illustrations. Of these signs a large number seem to be arbitrary, but many are evidently of good construction and quite acceptable to Indian sign-talkers.To these should be added:1832. La Mimica, by Andrea de Jorio. “La mimica degli antichi investigata nel Gestire Napoletano.” Napoli, 1832, 8vo, 372 pp., 21 plates.This interesting Italian work on Sign Language was written to show that the gestures figured on antique vases, etc., may be explained by their modern parallels, especially as observed in Naples. The 21 plates illustrate about one hundred of these gestures—about half of these are reproduced in Mallery’s 1881 publication.1854. Dactylologieby Louis de Mas-Latrie. “Dictionnaire de Paleographie.”Tome Quarante-septième, pp. 179 to 366.An extended study of Finger-talking as used by the deaf, the savages, etc. About 30 American Indian signs are described and compared with those of the deaf. No illustrations.1878. The Gesture Language, by E. B. Tyler, in his studies in “Early History of Mankind,” third edition, 1878, pp. 14–81.An interesting but not very important dissertation on the Gesture Language in use among the deaf, the Cistercian Monks, and the American Indians. No illustrations.1883. Sign Language, Remarks on, by Wilfred Powells in his “Wanderings in a Wild Country.” An account of a three years’ residence in New Britain (to the north of New Guinea), 1883, pp. 254–261, with 14 good figures, showing the digital origin of numbers.1896. Arunta Sign Language, E. C. Stirling. Rep. Horn Scientific Exped. to Central Australia; IV, pp. 111–125.A considerable discourse on the Sign Language as used by the very primitive races. Many figures.My thanks are due to General Hugh Lenox Scott,U. S. A., one of the best living sign-talkers, for a general review of the text, with new signs and explanations as indicated.To John Homer Seger of Colony, Oklahoma, for much assistance. He was for 45 years in official control of the Indians at Darlington and Colony, Oklahoma. They were of the Southern Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho tribes chiefly. All his communications with them were in the Sign Language, so that he became one of our best experts. We have corresponded much, and during a prolonged visit to his home in August, 1915, we together went over every sign in this Manual. His signs were of the Cheyenne dialect.To the Reverend Walter C. Roe (since dead) of Colony, Oklahoma, for many notes and comments. He was so expert that he preached every Sunday in the Sign Language.To Sheeaka, or Cyiaka (The Mudhen), a Yanktonnais Sioux living at Standing Rock. He worked over my entire manuscript with me in 1912, endorsing most of the signs given by Clark, as well as adding those that are accredited to him. He was considered the best sign-talker on the reservation. His familiarity with the Sign Language was largely due to the fact that a member of his family was a deaf-mute, so that he has kept up the method while others of his generation are forgetting it. Frank Zahn, an intelligent and educated half-breed, acted as interpreter and helped with many suggestions.In the autumn of 1916 I took my manuscript to Montana and received valuable help from the following Blackfoot Indians:Bearhead, an old-time, full-blooded Piegan Indian,with a pronounced contempt for modern ways and modern signs; George Starr or Bull Calf, a half-blood, who acted as interpreter for Bearhead; Medicine Owl, Eagle Child, Three Bears, Two-Guns Whitecalf; all full-blooded Piegans and excellent sign-talkers.Heavy Breast, a half-blood, acted as interpreter, with assistance from James C. Grant.I am also indebted to Chasing Bear (Ma-to Hu-wa-pi), a Santee, and to Chief Tom Frosted, a Yanktonnais; both of Standing Rock. About a dozen good signs were given me by C. B. Ruggles, of Taos, New Mexico; and helpful information was received from Thomas La Forge, official interpreter for the Crow Nation, and Clitzo Dead-man, an educated Navaho at Ganado, Arizona.In the spring of 1917 I spent some time among the Cheyennes at Concho, Oklahoma, checking up my lists. My chief source of information was Robert Burns, an intelligent and educated Cheyenne, who spoke excellent English and was also a good sign-talker. At the same time I got much valuable assistance from Cheyenne Fanny (Mrs. Hamilton), Deafy Fletcher, and numerous old Cheyennes and Arapahoes about the Post. Father Isadore, of the St. Patrick’s Mission, Anadarko, Oklahoma, and the Reverend Sherman Coolidge (Arapahoe), of Sheridan, Wyoming, also contributed.In the case of special or unusual signs, I give the name of the best of my authorities; but when, according to my own observation, the sign is in general use and indorsed by practically all, no authority is cited.I have to thank my friends James Mooney and F. W. Hodge of the Smithsonian Institution, and Professor J. Schuyler Long, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, for much helpfulcriticism; Professor Elmer D. Read, of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, for a review of the Introduction; also, Doctor Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), Colonel W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), Hamlin Garland, Miss Frances Densmore, and Mrs. Mary Austin for contributions or criticism.For the French and German equivalent words I am chiefly indebted to Doctor Lillian Delger Powers, of Mt. Kisco, New York. Some assistance was given by Miss Dorothy Dwenger, of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Harry G. Seides, Professor of German, Jersey City High School, New Jersey.The drawings throughout are by myself.Ernest Thompson Seton.

In offering this book to the public after having had the manuscript actually on my desk for more than nine years, let me say frankly that no one realizes better than myself, now, the magnitude of the subject and the many faults of my attempt to handle it.

My attention was first directed to the Sign Language in 1882 when I went to live in Western Manitoba. There I found it used among the various Indian tribes as a common language, whenever they were unable to understand each other’s speech. In later years I found it a daily necessity when traveling among the natives of New Mexico and Montana, and in 1897, while living among the Crow Indians at their agency near Fort Custer, I met White Swan, who had served under General George A. Custer as a Scout. He had been sent across country with a message to Major Reno, so escaped the fatal battle; but fell in with a party of Sioux, by whom he was severely wounded, clubbed on the head, and left for dead. He recovered and escaped, but ever after was deaf and practically dumb. However, sign-talk was familiar to his people and he was at little disadvantage in daytime. Always skilled in the gesture code, he now became very expert; I was glad indeed to be his pupil, and thus in 1897 began seriously to study the Sign Language.

In 1900 I included a chapter on Sign Language in myprojected Woodcraft Dictionary, and began by collecting all the literature. There was much more than I expected, for almost all early travellers in our Western Country have had something to say about thislingua francaof the Plains.

As the material continued to accumulate, the chapter grew into a Dictionary, and the work, of course, turned out manifold greater than was expected. The Deaf, our School children, and various European nations, as well as the Indians, had large sign vocabularies needing consideration. With all important print on the subject I am fairly well conversant, besides which I have had large opportunities in the field and have tried to avail myself of them to the fullest extent, carrying my manuscript from one Indian tribe to another, seeking out always the best sign-talkers among them, collecting and revising, aiming to add all the best signs in use to those already on record.

The following are the chief printed works on Sign Language:

1823. The Indian Language of Signsby Major Stephen H. Long, published in his Expedition to the Rocky Mts., 1823, Vol. I, pp. 378–394. Gives 104 signs. The earliest extensive vocabulary on record.

1880. Gesture Signs and Signals of the North American Indiansby Lieut. Col. Garrick Mallery. An elaborate and valuable 330 page quarto compilation from many contributors; published by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880.

It was preliminary to the much more extended work published the year following, and combines in itself all the important vocabularies published up to that time, including:Wm. Dunbar’s Listpub. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., January 16, 1801; about 60 signs;Prince Maximilian von Wied-Neuwied’s List, Reise, Nord. Am., 1832–34, 1837;Capt. R. F. Burton’s Listpub. in “The City of the Saints,” 1862;Dr. D. G. MacGowan’s Listpub. inHistorical Magazine, Vol. X, 1866, pp. 86–97; also Manuscript Lists supplied byCol. R. I. Dodge,Dr. William H. Corbusier, U. S. A., and about forty other contributors.

1881. Sign Language Among the North American Indianscompared with that among other peoples and Deaf Mutes, by Col. Garrick Mallery; 290 page quarto, 286 illustrations, an elaborate examination of the history, origin, and nature of the Sign Language, with extensive vocabularies. Published in 1st Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1881.

1885. The Indian Sign Languageby Capt. William Philo Clark, U. S. A., 244 pp. octavo, quite the best book on the subject, giving over 1,000 signs with photographic exactness; it is also one of the best early encyclopedic books on Indians in general; unfortunately, it is without illustrations and is out of print. Published by Hamersly & Co., of Philadelphia, 1885.

This is practically the only publication quoted in preparing this work. I have referred to it continually as a standard—as the highest available authority. (W. P. Clark was born July 27, 1845, at Deer River, Lewis Co., New York. Graduated from West Point June 15, 1868. Served on the Plains in 2d Cavalry during the Indianwars of 1876 to 1880. Died at Washington, D. C., September 23, 1884.)

About twenty-five years ago there lived in Anadarko, Indian Territory, an enthusiastic missionary worker named Lewis F. Hadley, known to the Indians as Ingonompashi.

He made a study of Sign Language in order to furnish the Indians with a pictographic writing, based on diagrams of the signs, and meant to be read by all Indians, without regard to their speech. Pointing to the Chinese writing as a model and parallel, he made a Sign Language font of 4,000 pictographic types for use in his projected works. He maintained that 110,793 Indians were at that time sign-talkers and he proposed to reach them by Sign-Language publications.

In pursuance of his plan, he issued the following:

1887. List of the Primary Gestures in Indian Sign Talk.“Only 19 copies were printed.” It was intended as a prodrome to “extended works and a magazine in Hands-tal[k]ing.”

It consists of 63 pages with 684 crude woodblocks of white lines on black ground, illustrating signs, alphabetically arranged, but without captions or text of any kind, except the explanation on the title page, abridged as above.

1890. A Lesson in Sign Talk, designed to show the use of the line showing the movement of the hands in the Indian Gesture Language, by In-go-nom-pa-shi, Fort Smith, Ark., 1890. Copyrighted by Lewis F. Hadley, 12 pp. A portrait of him by himself is on p. 11, inscribed “In-go-nom-pa-shi, drawn by himself at 60 years.”

It devotes 3 pages to general discussion of Sign Talk, 1½ pages to reform of our spelling, the rest is given to general remarks with 12 poor illustrations in white line, also a Scripture text with 15 signs drawn, the Lord’s Prayer with 55 drawn signs, and on p. 12, The Indian Little Star, a novel version of “Twinkle, Twinkle,” rendered in 97 drawn signs.

1893. Indian Sign Talk.Being a Book of Proofs of the matter printed or equivalent cards designed for teaching sign-talking Indians as much English as can be explained through the medium of their “Universal” Gesture Language, by Ingonompashi, copyrighted May 15, 1893, “only 75 copies are saved.”

This is Hadley’s most extended work. It is a dictionary of the Sign Language, in 268 large octavo leaves printed on one side only of each sheet.

It consists of 9 pages of Preface and general matter, 192 pp. of dictionary alphabetically arranged, each page having three gestures figured and beside each the equivalent in English. A total of 577 signs (including a double). Pages 193 to 205 are given to small reproductions of the sign drawings to illustrate “measurements of type”—his font—about 800 illustrations, two pages of appendix with compound sign words, and 14 illustrations, 1 page of black type, 18 in number, 53 pages of reading matter in signs, the above cited version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and the story of “Wolf and the White Man” in signs; the rest being Scripture texts and exhortations and the 19th Psalm, ending with the Lord’s Prayer.

The cards referred to I have. They consist of 571 separate cards with an illustrated sign on each and additional matter on the back. Besides which there areabout 100 separate cards each with a scripture text, chapter, or sermonette on it, about 1,000 illustrations in all. The same being the matter of the dictionary proper reproduced on separate cards, the diagram on one side and the text on the other. The front matter and the type measurements do not, however, appear on the cards. Though poor as art, the drawings are of some value to the student.

This is the most ambitious work extant on the subject of Sign Language, but seems to be quite unknown to most ethnologists, and is not in any library, so far as I can learn, except the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, the Library of Prof. J. C. Elsom of Wisconsin State University, and my own collection.

Of the 75 copies issued, only these 5 have been accounted for, but cards comprising the dictionary part were issued to the extent of 100,000 in sets of 571 each, and the reading matter on cards to the number of over 27,000.

1910. The Sign Language, by Prof. J. Schuyler Long, State School for the Deaf, Council Bluffs, Iowa, published at Washington, D. C., 1910. A valuable dictionary of about 1,500 signs used by the deaf, with 500 admirable photographic illustrations. Of these signs a large number seem to be arbitrary, but many are evidently of good construction and quite acceptable to Indian sign-talkers.

To these should be added:

1832. La Mimica, by Andrea de Jorio. “La mimica degli antichi investigata nel Gestire Napoletano.” Napoli, 1832, 8vo, 372 pp., 21 plates.

This interesting Italian work on Sign Language was written to show that the gestures figured on antique vases, etc., may be explained by their modern parallels, especially as observed in Naples. The 21 plates illustrate about one hundred of these gestures—about half of these are reproduced in Mallery’s 1881 publication.

1854. Dactylologieby Louis de Mas-Latrie. “Dictionnaire de Paleographie.”Tome Quarante-septième, pp. 179 to 366.

An extended study of Finger-talking as used by the deaf, the savages, etc. About 30 American Indian signs are described and compared with those of the deaf. No illustrations.

1878. The Gesture Language, by E. B. Tyler, in his studies in “Early History of Mankind,” third edition, 1878, pp. 14–81.

An interesting but not very important dissertation on the Gesture Language in use among the deaf, the Cistercian Monks, and the American Indians. No illustrations.

1883. Sign Language, Remarks on, by Wilfred Powells in his “Wanderings in a Wild Country.” An account of a three years’ residence in New Britain (to the north of New Guinea), 1883, pp. 254–261, with 14 good figures, showing the digital origin of numbers.

1896. Arunta Sign Language, E. C. Stirling. Rep. Horn Scientific Exped. to Central Australia; IV, pp. 111–125.

A considerable discourse on the Sign Language as used by the very primitive races. Many figures.

My thanks are due to General Hugh Lenox Scott,U. S. A., one of the best living sign-talkers, for a general review of the text, with new signs and explanations as indicated.

To John Homer Seger of Colony, Oklahoma, for much assistance. He was for 45 years in official control of the Indians at Darlington and Colony, Oklahoma. They were of the Southern Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho tribes chiefly. All his communications with them were in the Sign Language, so that he became one of our best experts. We have corresponded much, and during a prolonged visit to his home in August, 1915, we together went over every sign in this Manual. His signs were of the Cheyenne dialect.

To the Reverend Walter C. Roe (since dead) of Colony, Oklahoma, for many notes and comments. He was so expert that he preached every Sunday in the Sign Language.

To Sheeaka, or Cyiaka (The Mudhen), a Yanktonnais Sioux living at Standing Rock. He worked over my entire manuscript with me in 1912, endorsing most of the signs given by Clark, as well as adding those that are accredited to him. He was considered the best sign-talker on the reservation. His familiarity with the Sign Language was largely due to the fact that a member of his family was a deaf-mute, so that he has kept up the method while others of his generation are forgetting it. Frank Zahn, an intelligent and educated half-breed, acted as interpreter and helped with many suggestions.

In the autumn of 1916 I took my manuscript to Montana and received valuable help from the following Blackfoot Indians:

Bearhead, an old-time, full-blooded Piegan Indian,with a pronounced contempt for modern ways and modern signs; George Starr or Bull Calf, a half-blood, who acted as interpreter for Bearhead; Medicine Owl, Eagle Child, Three Bears, Two-Guns Whitecalf; all full-blooded Piegans and excellent sign-talkers.

Heavy Breast, a half-blood, acted as interpreter, with assistance from James C. Grant.

I am also indebted to Chasing Bear (Ma-to Hu-wa-pi), a Santee, and to Chief Tom Frosted, a Yanktonnais; both of Standing Rock. About a dozen good signs were given me by C. B. Ruggles, of Taos, New Mexico; and helpful information was received from Thomas La Forge, official interpreter for the Crow Nation, and Clitzo Dead-man, an educated Navaho at Ganado, Arizona.

In the spring of 1917 I spent some time among the Cheyennes at Concho, Oklahoma, checking up my lists. My chief source of information was Robert Burns, an intelligent and educated Cheyenne, who spoke excellent English and was also a good sign-talker. At the same time I got much valuable assistance from Cheyenne Fanny (Mrs. Hamilton), Deafy Fletcher, and numerous old Cheyennes and Arapahoes about the Post. Father Isadore, of the St. Patrick’s Mission, Anadarko, Oklahoma, and the Reverend Sherman Coolidge (Arapahoe), of Sheridan, Wyoming, also contributed.

In the case of special or unusual signs, I give the name of the best of my authorities; but when, according to my own observation, the sign is in general use and indorsed by practically all, no authority is cited.

I have to thank my friends James Mooney and F. W. Hodge of the Smithsonian Institution, and Professor J. Schuyler Long, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, for much helpfulcriticism; Professor Elmer D. Read, of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, for a review of the Introduction; also, Doctor Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), Colonel W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), Hamlin Garland, Miss Frances Densmore, and Mrs. Mary Austin for contributions or criticism.

For the French and German equivalent words I am chiefly indebted to Doctor Lillian Delger Powers, of Mt. Kisco, New York. Some assistance was given by Miss Dorothy Dwenger, of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Harry G. Seides, Professor of German, Jersey City High School, New Jersey.

The drawings throughout are by myself.

Ernest Thompson Seton.

INTRODUCTIONITS ANTIQUITYMany thoughtful men have been trying for a century, at least, to give mankind a world-speech which would overstep all linguistic barriers, and one cannot help wondering why they have overlooked the Sign Language, the one mode common to all mankind, already established and as old as Babel. Yes, more ancient than the hills.As far back as the records go, we find the Sign Language in use. General Hugh L. Scott has pointed out nineteen examples in Homer. Greek vases, Japanese bronzes, ancient Hindu statuary, as well as songs and legends older than history, give testimony in like tenor. While Egyptologists remind us that the oldest records show, not only that the Sign Language was then used, but that the one original code was much like that in use to-day. The fact that it is yet found all over the world wherever man is man, is proof of its being built on human nature in the beginnings. We might even argue that it is more ancient than speech.Ideas certainly came before the words that express them. The idea of “hunger” must be a thousand times as old as any existing “word” for “hunger.” When it became necessary to communicate to another the idea of hunger, it certainly was easier and more direct to communicate it by gesture than by word. The word had, perforce, to be more or less arbitrary, but the gesture waslogical, and could at once indicate the pain, its place, and even hint at the cause.The possible variations of a mere squeak in a concealed pipe are obviously less in number and far less graphic and logical than the various movements of two active, free-moving, compound, visible parts of the body that utilize all the dimensions of space, all the suggestions of speed, motion, physical form and action, juxtaposition, yes, even a measure of sound, and that could in a multitude of cases reproduce the very idea itself.Animals have far more gestures to express thoughts and emotions than they have sounds, and children instinctively use gestures for various ideas long before they acquire the sound for them. In all races as a rule the very young children’s gestures are the same, but the different words imposed by the different mothers have little or nothing in common, and no obvious basis in logic. All of which goes to prove the greater antiquity of eye-talk over ear-talk. To which conclusion we are forced also by the superiority of sight over hearing as a sense. “Seeing is believing,” is convincement: hearing is more open to challenge.Nor can the sign-talk have changed radically, for it is founded on the basic elements of human make-up, and on mathematics, and is so perfectly ideographic that no amount of bad presentation can completely divert attention from the essential thought to the vehicle; while punning is an impossibility.It had all the inherent possibilities of speech, was indeed capable of even greater subtleties, as we have noted, and had a far greater distance range, three or four times that of spoken words.In view of the greater antiquity and many advantages that hand gestures have over spoken language, one is prompted to ask: Why did it not develop and continue man’s chief mode of inter-communication? The answer is, doubtless, partly because it was useless in the dark or when the person was out of sight or partly hidden by intervening things. Diagrammatically expressed it was thus:Speech and GestureSpeech therefore covers all directions night and day.Gesture covers one-third of the circle in hours of light.Therefore speech serves six times as many occasions as gesture.But the chief reason for the triumph of the appeal to the ear is doubtless because the hands were in constant use for other things; the tongue was not; was indeed practically free to specialize for this end.ITS UNIVERSALITYBeing so fundamental, ancient, and persistent, Sign Language is,perforce, universal. In some measure it is used by every race on earth to-day. Eskimo and Zulu, Japanese and Frenchman, Turk and Aztec, Greek and Patagonian. And whenever two men of hopelessly diversespeech have met, they have found a medium of thought exchange in the old Sign Language—the pantomimic suggestion of ideas.Latin races are proverbially hand-talkers, so that the Sign Language is more widely used among them than with Anglo-Saxons.But the American Plains Indian is undoubtedly the best sign-talker the world knows to-day. There are, or were, some thirty different tribes with a peculiar speech of their own, and each of these communicated with the others by use of the simple and convenient sign-talk of the plains. It is, or was, the language of Western trade and diplomacy as far back as the records go. Every traveller who visited the Buffalo Plains had need to study and practise this Western Volapuk, and all attest its simplicity, its picturesqueness, its grace, and its practical utility.Many of the best observers among these have left us long lists of signs in use, Alexander Henry in his gossipy journal among the Mandans of the Missouri in 1806 tells us of the surprise and interest he felt in watching two Indian chiefs of different tribes who conversed freely for hours on all subjects of common interest, conveying their ideas accurately by nothing but simple gestures.The European races are much less gifted as sign-talkers. But we all have a measure of it that is a surprise to most persons when first confronted with the facts. Our school children especially make daily use of the ancient signals.AMONG SCHOOL CHILDRENIn taking observations among school-boys and girls, I had this uniform experience: All denied any knowledgeof the Sign Language,at first, but were themselves surprised on discovering how much of it they had in established use.One very shy little girl—so shy that she dared not speak—furnished a good illustration:“Do you use the Sign Language in your school?” I asked.She shook her head.“Do you learn any language but English?”She nodded.“What is the use of learning any other than English?”She raised her right shoulder in the faintest possible shrug and at the same time turned her right palm slightly up.“Now,” was my reply, “don’t you see you have answered all my three questions in signs which you said you did not use?”Following the subject, I said: “What does this mean?” and held up my right hand with the first and second fingers crossed.“Pax,” she whispered; and then, after further trials, I learned that at least thirty signs were in daily use in that local school.This was in England. In America the sign “Pax,” or “King’s cross,” is called “King’s X,” “Fines” or “Fins” or “Fends,” “Bars up” or “Truce,” meaning always, “I claim immunity.”This is a very ancient sign and seems to refer to the right of sanctuary. The name “King’s cross,” used occasionally in England, means probably the sanctuary in the King’s palace.In general I found about 150 gesture signals inestablished use among American school children, namely:Me (Tap one’s own chest).You (Pointing to you).Yes (Nod).No (Shake head).Good (Nod and clap hands).Bad (Shake head and grimace).Go (Pushing flat hand forward, palm forward).Come (Drawing in flat hand, palm toward one).Hurry (The same repeated vigorously several times).Come for a moment (Beckon with forefinger, hand unmoved).Stop (Flat hand held up, palm forward).Gently (Flat hand held low, palm down, gently waved).Good-bye (Flat hand held high, palm down and forward, fingers quickly waved up and down).Up (Point up).High (Flat hand, palm down, held up at arm’s length).Deep (Left flat hand palm down at level of mouth, right palm up, as low as possible).Heaven (Point up very high and look up).Down (Point down).Forward (Swing index forward and down in a curve).Backward (Jerk thumb over shoulder).Across (Hold left hand out flat, palm down, run right index across it).Over or Above (Hold out flat left, palm down, and above it hold ditto right).Under (Reverse of foregoing).Hush (Index finger on lips).Listen (Curved hand behind ear).Look (Flat hand over eyes).Look there (Point and look in same direction).Touch (Reach out and touch with index).Taste (Lay finger on tongue).Smell (Hold palm to nose).Friendship (Hand shake).Warning (Index finger held up).Threatening (Fist held up).Weeping (With index finger at each eye, trace course of tears).Shame on you (Point one index at the person and draw the other along it several times in same direction).You make me ashamed (Cover eyes and face with hands).Mockery (Stick tongue out at person).Disdain (Snap fingers toward person).Scorn (Throw an imaginary pinch of sand at person).Insolent defiance (Thumb to nose, hand spread).Arrogant (Indicate swelled head).Pompous (Indicate big chest).Incredulity (Expose white of eye with finger, as though proving “No green there”).I am no fool (Tap one side of the nose).Joke (Rub side of nose with index).Connivance (Winking one eye).Puzzled (Scratch the head).Crazy (Tap forehead with index then describe a circle with it).Despair (Pulling the hair).Sleepy (Put a fist in each eye).Bellyache (Hands clasped across the belly).Sick (A grimace and a limp dropping of the hands).Applause (Clap hands).Victory (Swing an imaginary flag over head).Upon my honor (Draw a cross over heart or cross the hands over breast).I am seeking (Looking about and pointing finger in same directions).I am thinking (Lay index on brow, lower head and look out under brows).I have my doubts (Slowly swing head from side to side).I will not listen (Hold flat hands on ears).I will not look (Cover eyes with hands).I forget (Slowly shake head, and brush away something in air, near the forehead).I claim exemption, or “Fins” or “Bar up” (Middle finger crossed on index).I beg of you (Flat hand palm to palm, pointing to the person).I pray (Clasped hands held up).I am afraid, or surrender (Hold up both flat hands, palm forward).I wind him around my finger (Make the action with right thumb and index around left index).I have him under my thumb (Press firmly down with top of right thumb).You surprise me (Flat hand on open mouth).I send you a kiss (Kiss the finger tips of right hand and throw it forward).Search me (Hold the coat flaps open, one in each hand).Swim (Strike out with flat hands).Dive (Flat hands together, moved in a curve, forward and down).Will you come swimming? (Two fingers in V shape held up level).Will you? or Is it so? (Look, nod and raise brows).Fool or Ass (A thumb in each ear, flat hands up).Cut-throat (Draw index across throat).Indifference (A shoulder shrug).Ignorance (A shrug and a head shake).Pay (Hold out closed hand, palm up, rubbing thumb and index tips together).Jew (Flat hands waved near shoulders, palms up).Bribe (Hold hollow hand, palm up, behind one).It is in my pocket (Slap pocket with flat hand).Give me my bill (Beckon, then write on air).Match (Make the sign of striking a match on the thigh).Set it afire (Sign match, and then thrust it forward).Pistol (Making barrel with left index, stock and hammer with right hooked on; snapping right index from thumb).That tastes good (Smack the lips).The food was good (Pat the stomach).Bad taste (Grimace and spitting out).Bad smell (Hold the nose).Bend (With right hand bend left index).Break (With fists touching, make as though to bend a stick, then swing the fists apart).Hot (Wet middle finger in mouth, reach it forward and jerk it back).Cold (Fists near shoulder and shaken).Paint (Use flat right as a brush to paint flat left).Shave (Use finger or thumb on face as a razor).Wash (Revolve hands on each other as in washing).Knife (With right fist as though holding knife, whittle left index).Revolver (Hold out right fist with index extended and thumb up).Gun or shooting (Hold hands as in aiming a gun).Drive horses (Work the two fists, side by side).Give me (Hold out flat hand, palm up).Write (Make the action with index).Strike (Strike down with fist).Fighting (Make the fists menace each other).Drinking (Lift right hand to mouth as though it held a glass).Smoking (Make as though holding a pipe and drawing).Rub it out (Wet tips of right fingers, and seem to rub).Thank you (Bow and, at the same time, swing flat right, palm up, a little way down and to one side).Church (Hands clasped, fingers in, but index fingers up and touching).Get up (Raise flat right, palm up, from low up high).Sit down (Drop flat right, palm down, from high, down low).Here (Pointing down, hand swung in small circle).1In all, 110; besides the compass points, the features of the face, the parts of the body, the numerals up to 20 or 30, and a great many half-established signs, such asbook, telephone, ring the bell, etc., which, if allowed, would bring the number up to nearly 200.As another line of observation, I have asked New York boys, “How many signs does the Broadway policeman use in regulating the traffic?” Any bright child remembers presently that the officer seldom speaks, could scarcely be heard if he did. Indeed, he relies chiefly on Sign Language and hourly uses the established signs for “Stop,” “Come on,” “Come here,” “Go right,” “Go left,” “Go back,” “Hurry up,” “Go easy,” “I warn you,” “I’ll punish you,” “Pass,” “Keep behind me,” “Scorn,” and, perhaps, one or two others.While not infrequently the small boy responds with the sign of “insolent defiance” that is used the world ’round, and was probably invented by Cain and Abel.Similarly, the car conductor uses the signs for “Do you want this car?” “Do you want transfer?” “How many?” “Go on,” as well as most of the above.Evidently, then, the Sign Language is used of necessity in much of our life where speech is impossible.CODES, ETC.It is inevitable that a world-wide language be split into variant forms. Besides the fragmentary Sign Code among our children, the more copious list of signs among Latins, and the code of the Cistercian or Trappist Monks, there are the Deaf Code and the Sign Language of the American Indians. Only the two last are widely established and at all complete as languages to-day.DEAF CODEThe Sign Language used by the deaf was originated in France by Abbé de l’Epée about 1759, with a view tofacilitating the intercommunication of the deaf. His signs were largely arbitrary or founded on the spelling of French words, usually in abbreviated form, so that it was merely a short-hand of French done into finger-spelling.While this was the case at its beginning, the deaf themselves had instinctively done so much in the way of introducing pantomime and expressive gesture, that they have half redeemed the Code from its unfortunate original plan, and, in so doing, have made themselves intelligible to an immensely larger audience.THE INDIAN CODESo far as I can learn, no student hitherto has compared the various methods without being convinced that the American Indian Sign Language is the best extant. It is theoretically perfect and practically complete. In order to make this evident, I must offer a definition and some comparative details.A true Sign Language is an established code of logical gestures to convey ideas; and is designed as an appeal to the eye, without the assistance of sounds, grimaces, apparatus, personal contact, written or spoken language, or reference to words or letters; preferably made by using only the hands and adjoining parts of the body.Measured by these standards, there is only one true Gesture Language in the field to-day; that is the sign-talk of the American Indians. It is established over the whole area of the Great Plains; and, though varied locally, is essentially the same from Saskatchewan to Rio Grande.In general, it is claimed that there are two well-markeddialects of this: the northern, which is awhole handand atwo-handdialect; the central and southern, which is afingerandone-handdialect.The former is better for far signalling; the latter for conversation. There are, however, many exceptions to these rules; and, in any case, they are so close akin that Indians from opposite extremes of the Plains have no difficulty in conversing with each other.The Cheyennes originally lived in a central region where they had intercourse with a dozen tribes whose spoken language differed from their own; so they became very expert sign-talkers, perhaps the best. They have amplified to the number of several thousand signs, and simplified until theirs has become largely a one-hand code; therefore, as far as possible, I make the Cheyenne sign-talk my standard. All signs herein given I have found in use among the southern Cheyennes and are understood to be Cheyenne except when another source is specifically mentioned.Clark gives first place among gesture talkers to the Cheyennes and their associates the Arapahoes, whose sign-talk was the same, though their speech was very different, so that the signs for which he is authority may also be considered Cheyenne.The signs given me as Indian by Sheeaka and his friend, Tom Frosted, should be cautiously received if one would study the ancient code. Sheeaka had in his family a deaf-mute, who probably imported some signs from the Deaf Code, as indicated.In cases where there were different signs for the same idea, I have selected the simplest and clearest, the leastlike other signs; or, other things equal, the one most extensively used, preferring a one-hand to a two-hand sign.Usually that sign is best from the locality where the idea is most familiar. Thus the Sioux sign for “tree squirrel” is poor; the Modoc sign is very good. The Navaho signs for “domestic sheep” are numerous and clearly differentiated; those of the north are not, and refer back to the “bighorn.” Southern signs for “snow” are descriptive and cumbrous, while those of the northern tribes are simple and perfect.A COMPARISON OF THE TWO CODESA comparison of the Deaf and Indian Codes seems to emphasize the superiority of the Indian. The Deaf was intended to convey, word by word, a vocal language; it assumes that you know the other man’s speech, and can spell. Whereas, the Indian was invented to over-ride linguistic barriers and, knowing nothing of spelling, deals only with ideas.The next great advantage of Indian style is its picturesqueness. The two systems can be illustrated and fairly compared by the signs for the months.First the Deaf:January—Sign forMonth, thenJ,N, andR, that is 4 signs.June—Sign forMonth, thenJandN, that is 3 signs.July—Sign forMonth, thenJandL, again 3 signs.Whereas the Indian calls January theSnow Moon, thusmoonor “Horns in the sky” andsnow, that is two signs. June isRose Mooni.e.,hornsorCrescent in the skyandrose(the right hand plucking an imaginary petal from each finger tip of the left). July is theThunder Moon, i.e.,horns in the sky, then the right index darted downward in a quick zigzag to imitatelightning. All need but two signs each.The first involving a certain amount of spelling is limited to those who can read, and who use that word. The second, touching nothing but the idea, is widely acceptable, much shorter, and visible much farther off. It was apparently developed for the safe distance beyond arrow range.Again the Indian method is strong in its dignity. The deaf often spoil their sign-talk by grimacing, the Indian never does so. One may occasionally help the idea by facial expression, but it should be used with great reserve, as there is nothing more unlovely or likely to harm the study of the Sign Language than the excessive grimacing that one sometimes sees in an uneducated deaf-mute. The Indian sign-talker’s face is calm and little changed, his head is moved in graceful sweeps, and never jerked unless to express some jerky action. His communication is indeed a study in beautiful, dignified gesture. There is not an Indian sign in this book that depends on facial expression for its usefulness, and there are but few that involve the face in any way.Last year (1910) my friend Hamlin Garland met a party of moving picture men returning from a business tour among the Indians. He asked, “Did you get two old chiefs talking together in the Sign Language?” They said “No, hadn’t heard of it.”“Then,” he replied, “you have missed one of the most graceful and rewarding chances for your special art that the western country affords.”They were so much impressed with his descriptionthat they went back. Having brought together two chiefs of diverse speech they got results on their films which amply justified their time and trouble.Finally a large number of the signs used by the deaf are conventional and arbitrarily fixed, dating back about 100 years, whereas each Indian sign is the slow evolutionary product of ages, with its roots deep in human nature. It is never arbitrary, but so logical and so reasonable that it is easily and quickly learned.Every interested person, therefore, must regret profoundly that the teachers of the deaf should have gone out of their way to fabricate an unnatural, localized code, when there was awaiting them ready-made, and already established, a system founded on universal human nature, old as the hills, full of the charms of grace and poetry, and so logical that any one of any race can learn it in a tithe of the time required for the acquisition of the merest smattering of a spoken language, and the adoption of which would at once have greatly lessened the handicap of the deaf. One can only suppose that the founders of the code were unaware of the other’s existence.Undoubtedly actual service has done much to reform and redeem the Deaf Code and make it more nearly a true Sign Language, but one cannot help wishing that their teachers would take the inevitable step at once and adopt the natural system.Thus we have logic with us as well as the opinion of ethnologic students in giving preference to the Indian System. While in the extent of usage honors are about even, I am credibly assured that about 100,000 people are daily using the Deaf Code and an equal number using the Indian.It is my belief that an available popular Manual will soon establish the latter as the universal code and result in its further and full development.ATTITUDE TOWARD THE SIGN LANGUAGEThere are two distinct attitudes toward Indian Sign Language:First, that of the student who sees in it a beautiful product of evolution, a perfect demonstration of the subtle laws of speech growth, the outcome of human mind yearning for converse with human mind, rebellious at its shut-in loneliness, battering with its hands the prison walls, till it could reach out and signal to the next locked-in, before it had yet found the way of modulated sounds. This, then, was the means which responded to the demand for communion and mental fellowship before there was a spoken speech. It began, as all codes must, with the broadest, simplest root ideas, and expressed their inter-relationships at most by context, sequence, proximity, or emphasis, but not by inflection.Every student of the Sign Language is impressed by this thought and very naturally considers every true sign of the old Sign Language a thing sacred, precious as a pre-Homeric manuscript. He believes that to modify it or tamper with it would be to rob it of all value as a living expression of growth, and much like trying to readjust the crystalline forms on a frost-covered pane by shaping them with a hot iron. The student recognizes it as his first and highest duty to make faithful, unadulterated, untooled records of the oldest types of signs. This is the academic attitude. I am fully in sympathy with it.Second, the practical attitude which realizes that Sign Language, never dead, is coming to its renaissance and can serve many useful ends among us here to-day. But to complete its possibilities it must be brought up to date by the addition of elements that stand for the latest modern ideas; and therefore does not hesitate to seize on and adopt these elements wherever they may be found. Thus, it may be held, is a contamination of the thought by interminglement of spurious recent creations. But it is merely submitting the code to the ordinary rules of all language. We should remember, further, that the ancient signs, as well as the modern, wereinvented by men who had need of them. The only difference is that the one was invented recently, the other maybe thousands of years ago; and that without such changes the Sign Language could not serve its beneficent purpose to-day among the deaf, the distant, the roar-environed, the moving picture folk, and those of unknown speech about us. Hand-talk fully developed will find much good work to do; and it matters little where the elements of the code were gathered so long as they meet with general acceptation; which implies that they beneeded,serviceable, and ofsound construction. The forty odd Deaf Signs included here have been admitted on this basis.PROPER NAMESThere is at least one place where all pure Sign Language must fail; that is in dealing with proper names, especially new proper names. If I wish to signal “New York State” to an expert sign-talker, I can use the nickname “Empire State” and signal “Country great crowned”; or, for “Kentucky” I can signal “Countryblue grass”; or Boston, “The Hub City”; or Chicago “Windy City”; but when I come to South America or Oberammergau or Poughkeepsie, I am obliged to fall back on the white man’s method and spell the name. For this reason then we begin our sign-talk by teaching the one-handed sign alphabet of the deaf. The two-handed will answer, but obviously a one-handed sign is better than a two-handed, other things equal. We aim at simplicity; and there are many occasions when one has but one hand free.TO WHAT PURPOSE?My own interest in the study had been growing for thirty years, and to satisfy myself that it was not a mere fad of slight and passing import, I set down carefully the reasons for studying and using the Sign Language, not forgetting its limitations. I set these also in hostile array and will give them first:It is useless in the dark.It cannot serve over the telephone.It can scarcely be written, except by cumbrous pictographs.It cannot give new proper names; they must be spelled.But the reasons for the study were more numerous and stronger.1st.It develops observation and accurate thinking.All races that excel in sign-talking are noted for their keenness of observation. Which is cause and which effect one cannot certainly determine, but it is sure that this method of communication is excellent practice to develop observation, and it makes for a wonderfully graphic descriptive power.Herein, perhaps, is its most enduring, the least obvious, claim to a high place. There is a sweet reasonableness, a mathematical accuracy, in the fabric of the Sign Language that has an insistent and reactionary effect on the mental processes and pictures of those who use it. Therefore, it is valuable for the kind of mind it makes.2d.It is easily learned.Unlike most languages, it is very easily acquired, for most of the signs are natural in concept, and so logical that they explain themselves where their history is known. Six hundred signs (that is ideas) make a fairly good sign-talker.3d.It is Indian talk.By means of this you can talk to any Plains Indian no matter what his speech; and there are many tribes each with its own tongue or dialect. In some measure it is understood and used by savages and keen observers all over the globe.4th.A cognate code is the talk of the deaf; and is used the world round by them in preference to the manual alphabet when possible; so that a wide use of the much better Indian Sign Language will certainly result in their accepting it and thus tend to lessen the barrier between the deaf and their more fortunate brethren.5th.It is silent talk.It can be used on occasions when it is necessary to give information, but improper or impossible to speak aloud. Thus, lecturers use it in directing their lanternist; friends use it for necessary information during musical performances; it is used at the bedside of the sick, the actors in a moving picture can utilize it, and so be comprehended the world round; the pantomime stage, forbidden to use speech, can easily make clear the plot by sign-talk.In a recent letter, Prof. J. S. Long has furnished me with a touching instance (one that has since recurred) that indicates another and final service that the silent method can render: An eminent divine was on his deathbed. His life had been devoted to ministering to the deaf, he knew the Sign Language perfectly; for several hours before the end his power of ordinary speech had deserted him, but his mind was clear, and to the last he conversed freely with those about him, in this, the universal talk, the one which for its exercise depended on muscular powers that in his case were the last of all to fail.6th.It allows talk in an uproar.It can be used when great noise makes it impossible to use the voice; therefore it can be of daily service in modern life, city or country, and each year it discovers new uses. Friends talk across a rackety thoroughfare or from a moving train; firemen and policemen, or sailors in a storm find it of growing service. The baseball umpire uses it when the roar of the multitude makes him voiceless; the catcher talks to the pitcher; the aeroplanist talks to his friends on earth; the stockholder on the curb buys and sells in it; the football captain or the army officer issues clear sign orders when the uproar of fight would drown even the trumpet call. The politician facing a shrieking mob may find it useful for conveying a few crude truths to his crude, unruly audience, thus opening the way for a more usual form of harangue, or failing in the attempt, he can at least inform his friends of his next move and his audience what he thinks of them. In St. Paul’s epoch-making address on the stairs of Jerusalem we have a good illustration of the first part of this.7th.It is practical far-talk.It is a valuable method of talking at a distance, far beyond earshot. Compared with the other modes of far-signalling it has the great advantages of speed, for it gives a sentence while semaphore, Morse, or Myer code give a letter, and of inconspicuousness at short range, or in a crowd; also it is independent of apparatus.8th.It is a true universal language.It is already established. Instinctively the whole world has adopted it in a measure; and daily proofs of this are seen. Rasmussen among the Eskimo would have been helpless, he tells us, for he knew not their tongue, and they not a word of his, but they were expert sign-talkers and the lingual barrier was swept away. So also Henry among the Mandans, and Butler among the Basutos, while a thousand other cases could be aligned.It is so complete that Dr. W. C. Roe and many others regularlypreachandlecturein the language of Signs, to congregations in which several spoken tongues are used and would be necessary to the preacher were he limited to sounds.It is so fundamental indeed that it is the easiest means of communicating with animals; the best trainers of dogs and horses use Sign Language as the principal medium of command.But, for lack of standards and codification, its use is much smaller than it might be; and yet larger than commonly supposed. At least 100 of the 725 signs herein given are in daily employ among hearing white folk in America. After a little extension of the study, as is inevitable with a standard code, one will be able to travel all over Europe, the world indeed, on Sign Language alone.No matter what the other man’s language may be, French, German, Russian, Greek, all are the same in the Sign Language because it expressesideas, not words. This, then, is its chief obvious strength—It is a universal language.It was with this in view that the French and German equivalents were added after each sign; and since it is impossible to render in one word a sign that stands for a broad idea and is capable of conveying many meanings, according to the context and sense, the foreign equivalents are understood to deal only with the simplest root idea, that which usually is expressed by the first of the English words given.It is my earnest hope that we may have an International Society of the Sign Language whose functions would be to keep it pure, to add new signs as they are needed, and to aim at its complete development.Also, that in furtherance of this a thorough, full, and careful record of the old Indian Sign Language will be made before it is too late; that is, before all the old-time Indians of the Plains are dead.My own effort is meant not as a record of the past, but a starting point for the future.SYNTAX OF THE SIGN LANGUAGE2The Sign Language is a system of rootideasexpressed bygestures, preferably made only by the hands, withoutsounds or reference to letters, or words, spoken or written, and not delimited by anything corresponding to words. There can be but little doubt that Sign Language preceded all audible speech.Being fundamentally a true spontaneous language, wholly removed from any spoken language, it must necessarily have its own syntax and idiom.Its syntax is simple and primitive, much like that of spoken language in its earliest or monosyllabic stage, as defined by Hovelacque. Yet clearly many signs are amplified by an associated but subsidiary root, so that we may consider it entering the second or agglutinative stage. Thusdeer, signed by holding up the hands to indicatebranching horns, is a simple or isolated root; butwhite-tailed deerwhich gives firstdeer, then adds the qualifying signbanner tailby waving the right index up high, is in close correspondence with agglutinative language. Still more so are the signsfinishedordoneadded to a verb to show the past tense, or the different twists to the signgivethat turns it respectively intogive meorgive you, or the variations oftalkwhich make it meanI talk to you,you talk to me, orthey talk to each other.The sentence construction is elemental. Dependent sentences are not used nor are negative or involved questions.The relation of one idea to another is indicated chiefly by proximity and sequence, rarely by connectives and (with a few exceptions) never by inflection. So that the same sign may be the equivalent of a noun, a verb, or a phrase, etc., according as it is used.NOUNS AND PRONOUNSTheNominativeandObjective casesare not distinguished except by context and sequence, that is, the Nominative precedes, the Objective usually follows, the verb.A partial exception is the first personal pronoun—the starting point of most inflection—forI,mine, andmeare sometimes given as cognate but distinctive signs.ThePossessive caseis usually shown by the addition of the possessive sign, equivalent to “his,” “hers,” “its,” etc. “That man’s” horse would be signed:Man,that,his horse, orMan,that there,possession,horse.TheGenderof nouns is indicated when necessary by adding the signsmaleormanandfemaleorwoman. Thus “A She bear” would be renderedBear Woman.TheNumberof nouns is indicated by the signs 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.,manyorfew.In the Personal Pronouns the plural is made by addingallto the singular. ThusMe allis the equivalent of “We,”You allof “Ye.”He allis the equivalent of “they.”ThePersonby pointing tomyself, toyou, or to thethird person. The first person is understood unless otherwise indicated.VERBSTheVerbis usually placed between the subject and the object, but need of emphasis may change this so the verb comes last.TheTenseof verbs is marked by the auxiliary prefixesnow,futureandpast,finishedordone. Thus “I have eaten” would beI done eat, “I shall eat” will beI time ahead, eat.The present is understood, unless otherwise stated; but the sign is plastic and may be any part of the verb, according to context. ThusArrange,Arranged, orArrangingare the same.TheNumberof the verb is shown by the context.TheVoiceis assumed to be active, indeed the passive is not used.TheImperativeis shown by following the verb with the signmust, that is, strike down with right fist, giving the significance of command, or else by emphasis.TheSubjunctiveis shown by the signsif,so that,perhaps.ADJECTIVE AND ADVERBTheAdjectiveusually follows the substantive. Thus “A bad man” would be renderedMan bad. But numerals are exceptions to this rule.TheAdverbof time precedes the verb.Qualities are compared by the use of the signslittle,more,much,most,ahead, andbehind. They are further modified by adding such signs asstrong,brave,very much, orvery strong.TheNumeral signis often prefaced to small numbers to prevent confusion. Thus when prefaced by the numeral sign the signWolfmay becometwoandManbecomeone.Mere particles and expletives, as “a” “the,” etc., have no equivalent signs.PREPOSITIONSPrepositions were little used by the Indian sign-talkers, though they did haveabove,about,across,around,at,below,beside,beyond,by,for,from,in,near,on,out,to,under,upon,with, etc.Oforpertaining tohas been added by the deaf.CONJUNCTIONSAndoralso(add on)butorif(pick outorcut off),so that,withare the equivalents of conjunctions. Sometimes the close continuity of two signs serves the purpose of “and,” conversely a pause may indicate a full stop.INTERROGATIONThe sign of interrogation always precedes the question, but is sometimes added after it as well, for emphasis or certainty.PERIOD OR FULL STOPFor period, the signfinishedis generally used. The Blackfeet make the signbroken offand often clap the flat right down on the flat left, palm to palm, for both beginning and end of a sentence.ABSTRACT IDEASAbstract ideas are not copiously rendered in signs. But it often happens that a gesture with the index alone is specific, while the same gesture with the flat hand becomes abstract. For example, compareyonderandfar,upandup there.OPPOSITIONThe principle of opposition as pointed out by Mallery plays an important part in the pairing of signs. Thusabovebeing fixed,belowis the reverse; the signcomeis reversed ingo, andoutreversed inin, etc.EMPHASISEmphasis is sometimes given by using both hands for a sign that can be made by one, sometimes by repeating the sign, sometimes by energetic rendering, and sometimes by adding the signvery muchorheap.PARALLEL OR DUPLICATE SIGNSMany signs are made by parallel action of both hands. Most of these are permissibly rendered by using only one hand as,woman,abandon,gratitude, etc.ENUNCIATION OR DELIVERYIn actual and expert practice most signs are abbreviated. But the beginner, as in all new arts, should go slowly and be careful to make each sign clear-cut and complete in itself.The hands are always held or moved so as to illustrate,as far as possible, the action in mind or its manner, or its direction, or the point where it takes place, or the shape of an object, or their relative positions if two objects are being considered.ELEGANCEGrace and dignity are of large importance in all good sign-talk. Ugly or vulgar gestures should be abandoned. Even angular gestures should be avoided, except to express some angular idea.Many times my Indian teachers have said to me as I imitated their signs, “Yes, that is correct enough in a way, but it is awkward”; or “it is not graceful. We do it this way.” Then they sketched the same structure,but in sweeping lines. In this work many movements are indicated in straight lines, for the sake of simplicity. As a matter of fact, I never saw a Cheyenne make a straight-line movement, all had a graceful curve.Many signs are followed by a changeableliaison; that is, by an introduced sweep to join it on to the sign that follows and avoid a jerk or unpleasant movement. This elegant manner is what I call an Indian accent, few whites achieve it.In a dignified way, the expression of face and the pose were used in elucidation of the gesture, but very sparingly.THE CONCEPT AND ITS VALUEThe student of vocal language finds vital help in remembering the derivation of words; so also the sign-talker.Most signs were pantomimic originally, but through much use have become shortened, till now they are conventional. Yet it is well worth while in each case to note the original concept as fully as possible; first as a great help to the memory, and second as a guard against slovenly gesture and a guarantee of point, power, and structural accuracy. Some of the concepts given are evidently right, but some are mere guesses, probably wrong in many cases. It is quite permissible in any one to challenge any of them.Nevertheless, the fact that most signs are capable of logical explanation does not mean that they are self-explanatory. Indeed nearly all have become conventional, and each must be learned separately before it can be rightly used.Signs which make the heart the seat of the mind are,I think, older than those which give the place of honor to the brain.THE MANUAL ALPHABETAlthough not at all Indian, it is exceedingly helpful to know the single-hand alphabet as given in the cut onpage li; partly because it must sometimes be used forgiving proper namesand also because it saves time in describinghand positions. For example, we say “position A or B” instead of describing each hand all over again for each new sign.THE NUMERALSFingersandnumbersare nearly synonymous the world round when making signs, manual or written, hence the universality of the decimal system. The Indian Code, the Popular Code, and the Deaf Code are nearly alike in this, but in most points of difference the Indian is best.To prevent mistakes in certain cases preface the number with the sign ofnumbersorarithmetic.THE ORDINALSFor Ordinals, make the figure sign, 1, 2, or whatever it is, then without changing the position of hand or arm, give the hand a twisting from the wrist, to add point or emphasis, meaning “number-so-and-so.” This is not Indian but adopted from the Deaf, nevertheless quite logical.ILLUSTRATIONS OF SIGN LANGUAGEClark gives the following (pp. 17–18) as a good illustration of the syntax of the Sign Language:In English.“I arrived here to-day to make a treaty—my one hundred lodges are camped beyond the BlackHills, near the Yellowstone River. You are a great chief—pity me, I am poor, my five children are sick and have nothing to eat. The snow is deep and the weather intensely cold. Perhaps God sees me. I am going. In one month I shall reach my camp.”In Signs, this literally translated would read, I—arrive here—to-day—to make—treaty. My—hundred—lodge—camp—beyond—Hills—Black—near—river—called—Elk—you—chief—great—pity me—I—poor—My—five—child—sick—food—all gone (or wiped out)—Snow—deep—cold—brave (or strong). Perhaps—Chief Great (or Great Mystery)—above—see—me—I—go. Moon—die—I—arrive there—my—camp.“An Indian in closing or terminating a talk or speech wishing to say, ‘I have finished my speech or conversation,’ or, ‘I have nothing more to say,’simply makes the sign for ‘Done’ or ‘Finished.’”THE LORD’S PRAYERFATHER ISADORE’S VERSIONOur Father up high, medicine thy name. Thy sit-aboard down here on earth as up high. Give us all bread. Forgive our bad as we forgive bad. Lead us bad not. Ended.Professor Elmer D. Read has supplied me with the foregoing two examples done into the Sign Language of the deaf, as below:I—came—here—to-day—make—agreement (think parallel)—name (written). My—1 C (100) tents—beyond—B-l-a-c-k H-i-l-l-s, near Y-e-l-l-o-w-s-t-o-n-ewater flow. You—most—chief, feel—tender—me. I—ragged sleeve (poor). My—five—children (sign size)—sick—nothing—eat. Snow—deep. Weather (air, wind)—very cold. Perhaps—God—look down on (see) me. I—go. In—one—month—I—shall—arrive—tents—home (eat, sleep).The Lord’s Prayer in Deaf Signs:Our—Father—sky—into.Honored—thy—name—truly.Thy—kingdom—come;Thy—law—do—on—earth—as—in—sky.Give—us—our—bread—daily.Forgive—us—our—lawbreaking—as—we—forgive—those—injure—us.Lead—us—not—in—temptation,But—save (break our tied hands)—us—from—lawbreaking.Because—thine—kingdom, power, and—glory—forever.Amen.PICTURE-WRITINGAs already noted, a weakness of Sign Language is the difficulty of writing it without translating it into words, and thereby changing its nature and its world-wide application. Yet it can be written; and some mention of its recorded form may fitly round out this introduction.The characters used, because they represent ideas, not words or letters, are called ideographs or picture-writing. It is widely believed that Sign Language is the oldest of all languages, that indeed it existed among animals before man appeared on earth. It is universally accepted that the ideograph is the oldest of all writing. The Chinese writing, for instance, is merely picture-writing done with as few lines as possible.Thus, it is said that their curious character forHearingwas once a complete picture of a person listening behind a screen, but in time it was reduced by hasty hands to a few scratches; andWar, now a few spider marks, was originally a sketch ofTwo women in one house.We may also record our Sign Language in picture-writing, as was the custom of many Indian tribes; and we shall find it worth while for several reasons: it is picturesque and useful for decoration; and it is likely that a pictographic inscription dug up 10,000 years from now would be read, whether our language was understood or not.3When the French Government set up the Obelisk of Luxor, in Paris, and wished to inscribe it for all time, they made record, not in French or Latin, but in pictographs.It is, moreover, a good thing to take the young through the stages of race development; just as the young bird must run for a send-off, before it flies, so pictography, being its earliest form, is the natural first step to writing.In this dictionary I give the written form after many of the signs that have an established pictograph. These are chiefly from Mallery, 10th Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology. A few are popularly accepted among ourselves.NOTEThe letters, initials, etc., after the paragraphs indicate the chief authority for the sign.Where no authority is given, it means that the sign was observed by myself among the Cheyenne Indians. Those ascribed to other Indians also were observed by myself. Besides these the following are cited:C.Standing for Captain William Philo Clark, U. S. A.Scott, for General Hugh L. Scott, U. S. A.Seger, for John M. Seger, of Colony, Oklahoma.R. B., for Robert Burns, the Cheyenne interpreter at Concho, Oklahoma.Long, for Major Stephen H. Long, U. S. A.Pop.for Popular; that is, established among ourselves.D.for Deaf Sign, as given in J. Schuyler Long’s Dictionary.GENERAL INSTRUCTIONSThe drawing shows the hands as seen by the second person.The digits are named: thumb, first or index finger, second or middle finger, third or ring-finger, and fourth or little finger.The following marks, etc., are used in the illustrations:Unless otherwise stated thesolid outlineindicates the position of the hands at the beginning of a sign, thedotted outlinesindicate the position of the hands at the finish................. Dotted lines indicate the course of hand employed in the sign.Greater-than sign >Indicates the commencement point of the movement.Rightwards arrow →Indicates the direction of movement.Latin capital letter XIndicates the point in the gesture line at which the hand position is (x) changed.Circled dot ⊙Or full stop represents the termination of the movement.“A hand” means like A, and “B hand” means like B, etc., in the one-handed Deaf Alphabet (Cut 1) on next page. The positions meant by “4 hand,” “5 hand,” “flat hand,” “flat fist,” or “compressed hand,” are figured on the same page.Begin by learning the Single-hand Manual alphabet as noted above.Next learn theNumbersand the signs forQuestionand its combinations; alsoYesandNo,GoodandBad,ComeandGo,BigandSmall,TruthandLie,StrongandWeak,Understand,Perhaps,TalkandSign-talk, after this refer to the Dictionary for the signs that serve your purpose and use them according to the rules of syntax as herein set forth.Never lose a chance of talking the Sign Language with an old Plains Indian, preferably of the Cheyenne or Arapahoe tribes. Their wonderful facility and grace are as hard to convey on paper as the pronunciation of French, and are as essential for the best style in Sign Talk. One may, indeed, know every sign in this book and not be a good sign-talker, so fundamental is this correct accent, or manner.The one-handed Deaf Alphabet

Many thoughtful men have been trying for a century, at least, to give mankind a world-speech which would overstep all linguistic barriers, and one cannot help wondering why they have overlooked the Sign Language, the one mode common to all mankind, already established and as old as Babel. Yes, more ancient than the hills.

As far back as the records go, we find the Sign Language in use. General Hugh L. Scott has pointed out nineteen examples in Homer. Greek vases, Japanese bronzes, ancient Hindu statuary, as well as songs and legends older than history, give testimony in like tenor. While Egyptologists remind us that the oldest records show, not only that the Sign Language was then used, but that the one original code was much like that in use to-day. The fact that it is yet found all over the world wherever man is man, is proof of its being built on human nature in the beginnings. We might even argue that it is more ancient than speech.

Ideas certainly came before the words that express them. The idea of “hunger” must be a thousand times as old as any existing “word” for “hunger.” When it became necessary to communicate to another the idea of hunger, it certainly was easier and more direct to communicate it by gesture than by word. The word had, perforce, to be more or less arbitrary, but the gesture waslogical, and could at once indicate the pain, its place, and even hint at the cause.

The possible variations of a mere squeak in a concealed pipe are obviously less in number and far less graphic and logical than the various movements of two active, free-moving, compound, visible parts of the body that utilize all the dimensions of space, all the suggestions of speed, motion, physical form and action, juxtaposition, yes, even a measure of sound, and that could in a multitude of cases reproduce the very idea itself.

Animals have far more gestures to express thoughts and emotions than they have sounds, and children instinctively use gestures for various ideas long before they acquire the sound for them. In all races as a rule the very young children’s gestures are the same, but the different words imposed by the different mothers have little or nothing in common, and no obvious basis in logic. All of which goes to prove the greater antiquity of eye-talk over ear-talk. To which conclusion we are forced also by the superiority of sight over hearing as a sense. “Seeing is believing,” is convincement: hearing is more open to challenge.

Nor can the sign-talk have changed radically, for it is founded on the basic elements of human make-up, and on mathematics, and is so perfectly ideographic that no amount of bad presentation can completely divert attention from the essential thought to the vehicle; while punning is an impossibility.

It had all the inherent possibilities of speech, was indeed capable of even greater subtleties, as we have noted, and had a far greater distance range, three or four times that of spoken words.

In view of the greater antiquity and many advantages that hand gestures have over spoken language, one is prompted to ask: Why did it not develop and continue man’s chief mode of inter-communication? The answer is, doubtless, partly because it was useless in the dark or when the person was out of sight or partly hidden by intervening things. Diagrammatically expressed it was thus:

Speech and Gesture

Speech therefore covers all directions night and day.

Gesture covers one-third of the circle in hours of light.

Therefore speech serves six times as many occasions as gesture.

But the chief reason for the triumph of the appeal to the ear is doubtless because the hands were in constant use for other things; the tongue was not; was indeed practically free to specialize for this end.

Being so fundamental, ancient, and persistent, Sign Language is,perforce, universal. In some measure it is used by every race on earth to-day. Eskimo and Zulu, Japanese and Frenchman, Turk and Aztec, Greek and Patagonian. And whenever two men of hopelessly diversespeech have met, they have found a medium of thought exchange in the old Sign Language—the pantomimic suggestion of ideas.

Latin races are proverbially hand-talkers, so that the Sign Language is more widely used among them than with Anglo-Saxons.

But the American Plains Indian is undoubtedly the best sign-talker the world knows to-day. There are, or were, some thirty different tribes with a peculiar speech of their own, and each of these communicated with the others by use of the simple and convenient sign-talk of the plains. It is, or was, the language of Western trade and diplomacy as far back as the records go. Every traveller who visited the Buffalo Plains had need to study and practise this Western Volapuk, and all attest its simplicity, its picturesqueness, its grace, and its practical utility.

Many of the best observers among these have left us long lists of signs in use, Alexander Henry in his gossipy journal among the Mandans of the Missouri in 1806 tells us of the surprise and interest he felt in watching two Indian chiefs of different tribes who conversed freely for hours on all subjects of common interest, conveying their ideas accurately by nothing but simple gestures.

The European races are much less gifted as sign-talkers. But we all have a measure of it that is a surprise to most persons when first confronted with the facts. Our school children especially make daily use of the ancient signals.

In taking observations among school-boys and girls, I had this uniform experience: All denied any knowledgeof the Sign Language,at first, but were themselves surprised on discovering how much of it they had in established use.

One very shy little girl—so shy that she dared not speak—furnished a good illustration:

“Do you use the Sign Language in your school?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Do you learn any language but English?”

She nodded.

“What is the use of learning any other than English?”

She raised her right shoulder in the faintest possible shrug and at the same time turned her right palm slightly up.

“Now,” was my reply, “don’t you see you have answered all my three questions in signs which you said you did not use?”

Following the subject, I said: “What does this mean?” and held up my right hand with the first and second fingers crossed.

“Pax,” she whispered; and then, after further trials, I learned that at least thirty signs were in daily use in that local school.

This was in England. In America the sign “Pax,” or “King’s cross,” is called “King’s X,” “Fines” or “Fins” or “Fends,” “Bars up” or “Truce,” meaning always, “I claim immunity.”

This is a very ancient sign and seems to refer to the right of sanctuary. The name “King’s cross,” used occasionally in England, means probably the sanctuary in the King’s palace.

In general I found about 150 gesture signals inestablished use among American school children, namely:

In all, 110; besides the compass points, the features of the face, the parts of the body, the numerals up to 20 or 30, and a great many half-established signs, such asbook, telephone, ring the bell, etc., which, if allowed, would bring the number up to nearly 200.

As another line of observation, I have asked New York boys, “How many signs does the Broadway policeman use in regulating the traffic?” Any bright child remembers presently that the officer seldom speaks, could scarcely be heard if he did. Indeed, he relies chiefly on Sign Language and hourly uses the established signs for “Stop,” “Come on,” “Come here,” “Go right,” “Go left,” “Go back,” “Hurry up,” “Go easy,” “I warn you,” “I’ll punish you,” “Pass,” “Keep behind me,” “Scorn,” and, perhaps, one or two others.

While not infrequently the small boy responds with the sign of “insolent defiance” that is used the world ’round, and was probably invented by Cain and Abel.

Similarly, the car conductor uses the signs for “Do you want this car?” “Do you want transfer?” “How many?” “Go on,” as well as most of the above.

Evidently, then, the Sign Language is used of necessity in much of our life where speech is impossible.

It is inevitable that a world-wide language be split into variant forms. Besides the fragmentary Sign Code among our children, the more copious list of signs among Latins, and the code of the Cistercian or Trappist Monks, there are the Deaf Code and the Sign Language of the American Indians. Only the two last are widely established and at all complete as languages to-day.

The Sign Language used by the deaf was originated in France by Abbé de l’Epée about 1759, with a view tofacilitating the intercommunication of the deaf. His signs were largely arbitrary or founded on the spelling of French words, usually in abbreviated form, so that it was merely a short-hand of French done into finger-spelling.

While this was the case at its beginning, the deaf themselves had instinctively done so much in the way of introducing pantomime and expressive gesture, that they have half redeemed the Code from its unfortunate original plan, and, in so doing, have made themselves intelligible to an immensely larger audience.

So far as I can learn, no student hitherto has compared the various methods without being convinced that the American Indian Sign Language is the best extant. It is theoretically perfect and practically complete. In order to make this evident, I must offer a definition and some comparative details.

A true Sign Language is an established code of logical gestures to convey ideas; and is designed as an appeal to the eye, without the assistance of sounds, grimaces, apparatus, personal contact, written or spoken language, or reference to words or letters; preferably made by using only the hands and adjoining parts of the body.

Measured by these standards, there is only one true Gesture Language in the field to-day; that is the sign-talk of the American Indians. It is established over the whole area of the Great Plains; and, though varied locally, is essentially the same from Saskatchewan to Rio Grande.

In general, it is claimed that there are two well-markeddialects of this: the northern, which is awhole handand atwo-handdialect; the central and southern, which is afingerandone-handdialect.

The former is better for far signalling; the latter for conversation. There are, however, many exceptions to these rules; and, in any case, they are so close akin that Indians from opposite extremes of the Plains have no difficulty in conversing with each other.

The Cheyennes originally lived in a central region where they had intercourse with a dozen tribes whose spoken language differed from their own; so they became very expert sign-talkers, perhaps the best. They have amplified to the number of several thousand signs, and simplified until theirs has become largely a one-hand code; therefore, as far as possible, I make the Cheyenne sign-talk my standard. All signs herein given I have found in use among the southern Cheyennes and are understood to be Cheyenne except when another source is specifically mentioned.

Clark gives first place among gesture talkers to the Cheyennes and their associates the Arapahoes, whose sign-talk was the same, though their speech was very different, so that the signs for which he is authority may also be considered Cheyenne.

The signs given me as Indian by Sheeaka and his friend, Tom Frosted, should be cautiously received if one would study the ancient code. Sheeaka had in his family a deaf-mute, who probably imported some signs from the Deaf Code, as indicated.

In cases where there were different signs for the same idea, I have selected the simplest and clearest, the leastlike other signs; or, other things equal, the one most extensively used, preferring a one-hand to a two-hand sign.

Usually that sign is best from the locality where the idea is most familiar. Thus the Sioux sign for “tree squirrel” is poor; the Modoc sign is very good. The Navaho signs for “domestic sheep” are numerous and clearly differentiated; those of the north are not, and refer back to the “bighorn.” Southern signs for “snow” are descriptive and cumbrous, while those of the northern tribes are simple and perfect.

A comparison of the Deaf and Indian Codes seems to emphasize the superiority of the Indian. The Deaf was intended to convey, word by word, a vocal language; it assumes that you know the other man’s speech, and can spell. Whereas, the Indian was invented to over-ride linguistic barriers and, knowing nothing of spelling, deals only with ideas.

The next great advantage of Indian style is its picturesqueness. The two systems can be illustrated and fairly compared by the signs for the months.

First the Deaf:

January—Sign forMonth, thenJ,N, andR, that is 4 signs.

June—Sign forMonth, thenJandN, that is 3 signs.

July—Sign forMonth, thenJandL, again 3 signs.

Whereas the Indian calls January theSnow Moon, thusmoonor “Horns in the sky” andsnow, that is two signs. June isRose Mooni.e.,hornsorCrescent in the skyandrose(the right hand plucking an imaginary petal from each finger tip of the left). July is theThunder Moon, i.e.,horns in the sky, then the right index darted downward in a quick zigzag to imitatelightning. All need but two signs each.

The first involving a certain amount of spelling is limited to those who can read, and who use that word. The second, touching nothing but the idea, is widely acceptable, much shorter, and visible much farther off. It was apparently developed for the safe distance beyond arrow range.

Again the Indian method is strong in its dignity. The deaf often spoil their sign-talk by grimacing, the Indian never does so. One may occasionally help the idea by facial expression, but it should be used with great reserve, as there is nothing more unlovely or likely to harm the study of the Sign Language than the excessive grimacing that one sometimes sees in an uneducated deaf-mute. The Indian sign-talker’s face is calm and little changed, his head is moved in graceful sweeps, and never jerked unless to express some jerky action. His communication is indeed a study in beautiful, dignified gesture. There is not an Indian sign in this book that depends on facial expression for its usefulness, and there are but few that involve the face in any way.

Last year (1910) my friend Hamlin Garland met a party of moving picture men returning from a business tour among the Indians. He asked, “Did you get two old chiefs talking together in the Sign Language?” They said “No, hadn’t heard of it.”

“Then,” he replied, “you have missed one of the most graceful and rewarding chances for your special art that the western country affords.”

They were so much impressed with his descriptionthat they went back. Having brought together two chiefs of diverse speech they got results on their films which amply justified their time and trouble.

Finally a large number of the signs used by the deaf are conventional and arbitrarily fixed, dating back about 100 years, whereas each Indian sign is the slow evolutionary product of ages, with its roots deep in human nature. It is never arbitrary, but so logical and so reasonable that it is easily and quickly learned.

Every interested person, therefore, must regret profoundly that the teachers of the deaf should have gone out of their way to fabricate an unnatural, localized code, when there was awaiting them ready-made, and already established, a system founded on universal human nature, old as the hills, full of the charms of grace and poetry, and so logical that any one of any race can learn it in a tithe of the time required for the acquisition of the merest smattering of a spoken language, and the adoption of which would at once have greatly lessened the handicap of the deaf. One can only suppose that the founders of the code were unaware of the other’s existence.

Undoubtedly actual service has done much to reform and redeem the Deaf Code and make it more nearly a true Sign Language, but one cannot help wishing that their teachers would take the inevitable step at once and adopt the natural system.

Thus we have logic with us as well as the opinion of ethnologic students in giving preference to the Indian System. While in the extent of usage honors are about even, I am credibly assured that about 100,000 people are daily using the Deaf Code and an equal number using the Indian.

It is my belief that an available popular Manual will soon establish the latter as the universal code and result in its further and full development.

There are two distinct attitudes toward Indian Sign Language:

First, that of the student who sees in it a beautiful product of evolution, a perfect demonstration of the subtle laws of speech growth, the outcome of human mind yearning for converse with human mind, rebellious at its shut-in loneliness, battering with its hands the prison walls, till it could reach out and signal to the next locked-in, before it had yet found the way of modulated sounds. This, then, was the means which responded to the demand for communion and mental fellowship before there was a spoken speech. It began, as all codes must, with the broadest, simplest root ideas, and expressed their inter-relationships at most by context, sequence, proximity, or emphasis, but not by inflection.

Every student of the Sign Language is impressed by this thought and very naturally considers every true sign of the old Sign Language a thing sacred, precious as a pre-Homeric manuscript. He believes that to modify it or tamper with it would be to rob it of all value as a living expression of growth, and much like trying to readjust the crystalline forms on a frost-covered pane by shaping them with a hot iron. The student recognizes it as his first and highest duty to make faithful, unadulterated, untooled records of the oldest types of signs. This is the academic attitude. I am fully in sympathy with it.

Second, the practical attitude which realizes that Sign Language, never dead, is coming to its renaissance and can serve many useful ends among us here to-day. But to complete its possibilities it must be brought up to date by the addition of elements that stand for the latest modern ideas; and therefore does not hesitate to seize on and adopt these elements wherever they may be found. Thus, it may be held, is a contamination of the thought by interminglement of spurious recent creations. But it is merely submitting the code to the ordinary rules of all language. We should remember, further, that the ancient signs, as well as the modern, wereinvented by men who had need of them. The only difference is that the one was invented recently, the other maybe thousands of years ago; and that without such changes the Sign Language could not serve its beneficent purpose to-day among the deaf, the distant, the roar-environed, the moving picture folk, and those of unknown speech about us. Hand-talk fully developed will find much good work to do; and it matters little where the elements of the code were gathered so long as they meet with general acceptation; which implies that they beneeded,serviceable, and ofsound construction. The forty odd Deaf Signs included here have been admitted on this basis.

There is at least one place where all pure Sign Language must fail; that is in dealing with proper names, especially new proper names. If I wish to signal “New York State” to an expert sign-talker, I can use the nickname “Empire State” and signal “Country great crowned”; or, for “Kentucky” I can signal “Countryblue grass”; or Boston, “The Hub City”; or Chicago “Windy City”; but when I come to South America or Oberammergau or Poughkeepsie, I am obliged to fall back on the white man’s method and spell the name. For this reason then we begin our sign-talk by teaching the one-handed sign alphabet of the deaf. The two-handed will answer, but obviously a one-handed sign is better than a two-handed, other things equal. We aim at simplicity; and there are many occasions when one has but one hand free.

My own interest in the study had been growing for thirty years, and to satisfy myself that it was not a mere fad of slight and passing import, I set down carefully the reasons for studying and using the Sign Language, not forgetting its limitations. I set these also in hostile array and will give them first:

It is useless in the dark.

It cannot serve over the telephone.

It can scarcely be written, except by cumbrous pictographs.

It cannot give new proper names; they must be spelled.

But the reasons for the study were more numerous and stronger.

1st.It develops observation and accurate thinking.All races that excel in sign-talking are noted for their keenness of observation. Which is cause and which effect one cannot certainly determine, but it is sure that this method of communication is excellent practice to develop observation, and it makes for a wonderfully graphic descriptive power.

Herein, perhaps, is its most enduring, the least obvious, claim to a high place. There is a sweet reasonableness, a mathematical accuracy, in the fabric of the Sign Language that has an insistent and reactionary effect on the mental processes and pictures of those who use it. Therefore, it is valuable for the kind of mind it makes.

2d.It is easily learned.Unlike most languages, it is very easily acquired, for most of the signs are natural in concept, and so logical that they explain themselves where their history is known. Six hundred signs (that is ideas) make a fairly good sign-talker.

3d.It is Indian talk.By means of this you can talk to any Plains Indian no matter what his speech; and there are many tribes each with its own tongue or dialect. In some measure it is understood and used by savages and keen observers all over the globe.

4th.A cognate code is the talk of the deaf; and is used the world round by them in preference to the manual alphabet when possible; so that a wide use of the much better Indian Sign Language will certainly result in their accepting it and thus tend to lessen the barrier between the deaf and their more fortunate brethren.

5th.It is silent talk.It can be used on occasions when it is necessary to give information, but improper or impossible to speak aloud. Thus, lecturers use it in directing their lanternist; friends use it for necessary information during musical performances; it is used at the bedside of the sick, the actors in a moving picture can utilize it, and so be comprehended the world round; the pantomime stage, forbidden to use speech, can easily make clear the plot by sign-talk.

In a recent letter, Prof. J. S. Long has furnished me with a touching instance (one that has since recurred) that indicates another and final service that the silent method can render: An eminent divine was on his deathbed. His life had been devoted to ministering to the deaf, he knew the Sign Language perfectly; for several hours before the end his power of ordinary speech had deserted him, but his mind was clear, and to the last he conversed freely with those about him, in this, the universal talk, the one which for its exercise depended on muscular powers that in his case were the last of all to fail.

6th.It allows talk in an uproar.It can be used when great noise makes it impossible to use the voice; therefore it can be of daily service in modern life, city or country, and each year it discovers new uses. Friends talk across a rackety thoroughfare or from a moving train; firemen and policemen, or sailors in a storm find it of growing service. The baseball umpire uses it when the roar of the multitude makes him voiceless; the catcher talks to the pitcher; the aeroplanist talks to his friends on earth; the stockholder on the curb buys and sells in it; the football captain or the army officer issues clear sign orders when the uproar of fight would drown even the trumpet call. The politician facing a shrieking mob may find it useful for conveying a few crude truths to his crude, unruly audience, thus opening the way for a more usual form of harangue, or failing in the attempt, he can at least inform his friends of his next move and his audience what he thinks of them. In St. Paul’s epoch-making address on the stairs of Jerusalem we have a good illustration of the first part of this.

7th.It is practical far-talk.It is a valuable method of talking at a distance, far beyond earshot. Compared with the other modes of far-signalling it has the great advantages of speed, for it gives a sentence while semaphore, Morse, or Myer code give a letter, and of inconspicuousness at short range, or in a crowd; also it is independent of apparatus.

8th.It is a true universal language.It is already established. Instinctively the whole world has adopted it in a measure; and daily proofs of this are seen. Rasmussen among the Eskimo would have been helpless, he tells us, for he knew not their tongue, and they not a word of his, but they were expert sign-talkers and the lingual barrier was swept away. So also Henry among the Mandans, and Butler among the Basutos, while a thousand other cases could be aligned.

It is so complete that Dr. W. C. Roe and many others regularlypreachandlecturein the language of Signs, to congregations in which several spoken tongues are used and would be necessary to the preacher were he limited to sounds.

It is so fundamental indeed that it is the easiest means of communicating with animals; the best trainers of dogs and horses use Sign Language as the principal medium of command.

But, for lack of standards and codification, its use is much smaller than it might be; and yet larger than commonly supposed. At least 100 of the 725 signs herein given are in daily employ among hearing white folk in America. After a little extension of the study, as is inevitable with a standard code, one will be able to travel all over Europe, the world indeed, on Sign Language alone.No matter what the other man’s language may be, French, German, Russian, Greek, all are the same in the Sign Language because it expressesideas, not words. This, then, is its chief obvious strength—It is a universal language.

It was with this in view that the French and German equivalents were added after each sign; and since it is impossible to render in one word a sign that stands for a broad idea and is capable of conveying many meanings, according to the context and sense, the foreign equivalents are understood to deal only with the simplest root idea, that which usually is expressed by the first of the English words given.

It is my earnest hope that we may have an International Society of the Sign Language whose functions would be to keep it pure, to add new signs as they are needed, and to aim at its complete development.

Also, that in furtherance of this a thorough, full, and careful record of the old Indian Sign Language will be made before it is too late; that is, before all the old-time Indians of the Plains are dead.

My own effort is meant not as a record of the past, but a starting point for the future.

The Sign Language is a system of rootideasexpressed bygestures, preferably made only by the hands, withoutsounds or reference to letters, or words, spoken or written, and not delimited by anything corresponding to words. There can be but little doubt that Sign Language preceded all audible speech.

Being fundamentally a true spontaneous language, wholly removed from any spoken language, it must necessarily have its own syntax and idiom.

Its syntax is simple and primitive, much like that of spoken language in its earliest or monosyllabic stage, as defined by Hovelacque. Yet clearly many signs are amplified by an associated but subsidiary root, so that we may consider it entering the second or agglutinative stage. Thusdeer, signed by holding up the hands to indicatebranching horns, is a simple or isolated root; butwhite-tailed deerwhich gives firstdeer, then adds the qualifying signbanner tailby waving the right index up high, is in close correspondence with agglutinative language. Still more so are the signsfinishedordoneadded to a verb to show the past tense, or the different twists to the signgivethat turns it respectively intogive meorgive you, or the variations oftalkwhich make it meanI talk to you,you talk to me, orthey talk to each other.

The sentence construction is elemental. Dependent sentences are not used nor are negative or involved questions.

The relation of one idea to another is indicated chiefly by proximity and sequence, rarely by connectives and (with a few exceptions) never by inflection. So that the same sign may be the equivalent of a noun, a verb, or a phrase, etc., according as it is used.

TheNominativeandObjective casesare not distinguished except by context and sequence, that is, the Nominative precedes, the Objective usually follows, the verb.

A partial exception is the first personal pronoun—the starting point of most inflection—forI,mine, andmeare sometimes given as cognate but distinctive signs.

ThePossessive caseis usually shown by the addition of the possessive sign, equivalent to “his,” “hers,” “its,” etc. “That man’s” horse would be signed:Man,that,his horse, orMan,that there,possession,horse.

TheGenderof nouns is indicated when necessary by adding the signsmaleormanandfemaleorwoman. Thus “A She bear” would be renderedBear Woman.

TheNumberof nouns is indicated by the signs 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.,manyorfew.

In the Personal Pronouns the plural is made by addingallto the singular. ThusMe allis the equivalent of “We,”You allof “Ye.”He allis the equivalent of “they.”

ThePersonby pointing tomyself, toyou, or to thethird person. The first person is understood unless otherwise indicated.

TheVerbis usually placed between the subject and the object, but need of emphasis may change this so the verb comes last.

TheTenseof verbs is marked by the auxiliary prefixesnow,futureandpast,finishedordone. Thus “I have eaten” would beI done eat, “I shall eat” will beI time ahead, eat.

The present is understood, unless otherwise stated; but the sign is plastic and may be any part of the verb, according to context. ThusArrange,Arranged, orArrangingare the same.

TheNumberof the verb is shown by the context.

TheVoiceis assumed to be active, indeed the passive is not used.

TheImperativeis shown by following the verb with the signmust, that is, strike down with right fist, giving the significance of command, or else by emphasis.

TheSubjunctiveis shown by the signsif,so that,perhaps.

TheAdjectiveusually follows the substantive. Thus “A bad man” would be renderedMan bad. But numerals are exceptions to this rule.

TheAdverbof time precedes the verb.

Qualities are compared by the use of the signslittle,more,much,most,ahead, andbehind. They are further modified by adding such signs asstrong,brave,very much, orvery strong.

TheNumeral signis often prefaced to small numbers to prevent confusion. Thus when prefaced by the numeral sign the signWolfmay becometwoandManbecomeone.

Mere particles and expletives, as “a” “the,” etc., have no equivalent signs.

Prepositions were little used by the Indian sign-talkers, though they did haveabove,about,across,around,at,below,beside,beyond,by,for,from,in,near,on,out,to,under,upon,with, etc.Oforpertaining tohas been added by the deaf.

Andoralso(add on)butorif(pick outorcut off),so that,withare the equivalents of conjunctions. Sometimes the close continuity of two signs serves the purpose of “and,” conversely a pause may indicate a full stop.

The sign of interrogation always precedes the question, but is sometimes added after it as well, for emphasis or certainty.

For period, the signfinishedis generally used. The Blackfeet make the signbroken offand often clap the flat right down on the flat left, palm to palm, for both beginning and end of a sentence.

Abstract ideas are not copiously rendered in signs. But it often happens that a gesture with the index alone is specific, while the same gesture with the flat hand becomes abstract. For example, compareyonderandfar,upandup there.

The principle of opposition as pointed out by Mallery plays an important part in the pairing of signs. Thusabovebeing fixed,belowis the reverse; the signcomeis reversed ingo, andoutreversed inin, etc.

Emphasis is sometimes given by using both hands for a sign that can be made by one, sometimes by repeating the sign, sometimes by energetic rendering, and sometimes by adding the signvery muchorheap.

Many signs are made by parallel action of both hands. Most of these are permissibly rendered by using only one hand as,woman,abandon,gratitude, etc.

In actual and expert practice most signs are abbreviated. But the beginner, as in all new arts, should go slowly and be careful to make each sign clear-cut and complete in itself.

The hands are always held or moved so as to illustrate,as far as possible, the action in mind or its manner, or its direction, or the point where it takes place, or the shape of an object, or their relative positions if two objects are being considered.

Grace and dignity are of large importance in all good sign-talk. Ugly or vulgar gestures should be abandoned. Even angular gestures should be avoided, except to express some angular idea.

Many times my Indian teachers have said to me as I imitated their signs, “Yes, that is correct enough in a way, but it is awkward”; or “it is not graceful. We do it this way.” Then they sketched the same structure,but in sweeping lines. In this work many movements are indicated in straight lines, for the sake of simplicity. As a matter of fact, I never saw a Cheyenne make a straight-line movement, all had a graceful curve.

Many signs are followed by a changeableliaison; that is, by an introduced sweep to join it on to the sign that follows and avoid a jerk or unpleasant movement. This elegant manner is what I call an Indian accent, few whites achieve it.

In a dignified way, the expression of face and the pose were used in elucidation of the gesture, but very sparingly.

The student of vocal language finds vital help in remembering the derivation of words; so also the sign-talker.

Most signs were pantomimic originally, but through much use have become shortened, till now they are conventional. Yet it is well worth while in each case to note the original concept as fully as possible; first as a great help to the memory, and second as a guard against slovenly gesture and a guarantee of point, power, and structural accuracy. Some of the concepts given are evidently right, but some are mere guesses, probably wrong in many cases. It is quite permissible in any one to challenge any of them.

Nevertheless, the fact that most signs are capable of logical explanation does not mean that they are self-explanatory. Indeed nearly all have become conventional, and each must be learned separately before it can be rightly used.

Signs which make the heart the seat of the mind are,I think, older than those which give the place of honor to the brain.

Although not at all Indian, it is exceedingly helpful to know the single-hand alphabet as given in the cut onpage li; partly because it must sometimes be used forgiving proper namesand also because it saves time in describinghand positions. For example, we say “position A or B” instead of describing each hand all over again for each new sign.

Fingersandnumbersare nearly synonymous the world round when making signs, manual or written, hence the universality of the decimal system. The Indian Code, the Popular Code, and the Deaf Code are nearly alike in this, but in most points of difference the Indian is best.

To prevent mistakes in certain cases preface the number with the sign ofnumbersorarithmetic.

For Ordinals, make the figure sign, 1, 2, or whatever it is, then without changing the position of hand or arm, give the hand a twisting from the wrist, to add point or emphasis, meaning “number-so-and-so.” This is not Indian but adopted from the Deaf, nevertheless quite logical.

Clark gives the following (pp. 17–18) as a good illustration of the syntax of the Sign Language:

In English.“I arrived here to-day to make a treaty—my one hundred lodges are camped beyond the BlackHills, near the Yellowstone River. You are a great chief—pity me, I am poor, my five children are sick and have nothing to eat. The snow is deep and the weather intensely cold. Perhaps God sees me. I am going. In one month I shall reach my camp.”

In Signs, this literally translated would read, I—arrive here—to-day—to make—treaty. My—hundred—lodge—camp—beyond—Hills—Black—near—river—called—Elk—you—chief—great—pity me—I—poor—My—five—child—sick—food—all gone (or wiped out)—Snow—deep—cold—brave (or strong). Perhaps—Chief Great (or Great Mystery)—above—see—me—I—go. Moon—die—I—arrive there—my—camp.

“An Indian in closing or terminating a talk or speech wishing to say, ‘I have finished my speech or conversation,’ or, ‘I have nothing more to say,’simply makes the sign for ‘Done’ or ‘Finished.’”

Our Father up high, medicine thy name. Thy sit-aboard down here on earth as up high. Give us all bread. Forgive our bad as we forgive bad. Lead us bad not. Ended.

Our Father up high, medicine thy name. Thy sit-aboard down here on earth as up high. Give us all bread. Forgive our bad as we forgive bad. Lead us bad not. Ended.

Professor Elmer D. Read has supplied me with the foregoing two examples done into the Sign Language of the deaf, as below:

I—came—here—to-day—make—agreement (think parallel)—name (written). My—1 C (100) tents—beyond—B-l-a-c-k H-i-l-l-s, near Y-e-l-l-o-w-s-t-o-n-ewater flow. You—most—chief, feel—tender—me. I—ragged sleeve (poor). My—five—children (sign size)—sick—nothing—eat. Snow—deep. Weather (air, wind)—very cold. Perhaps—God—look down on (see) me. I—go. In—one—month—I—shall—arrive—tents—home (eat, sleep).

I—came—here—to-day—make—agreement (think parallel)—name (written). My—1 C (100) tents—beyond—B-l-a-c-k H-i-l-l-s, near Y-e-l-l-o-w-s-t-o-n-ewater flow. You—most—chief, feel—tender—me. I—ragged sleeve (poor). My—five—children (sign size)—sick—nothing—eat. Snow—deep. Weather (air, wind)—very cold. Perhaps—God—look down on (see) me. I—go. In—one—month—I—shall—arrive—tents—home (eat, sleep).

Our—Father—sky—into.Honored—thy—name—truly.Thy—kingdom—come;Thy—law—do—on—earth—as—in—sky.Give—us—our—bread—daily.Forgive—us—our—lawbreaking—as—we—forgive—those—injure—us.Lead—us—not—in—temptation,But—save (break our tied hands)—us—from—lawbreaking.Because—thine—kingdom, power, and—glory—forever.Amen.

Our—Father—sky—into.

Honored—thy—name—truly.

Thy—kingdom—come;

Thy—law—do—on—earth—as—in—sky.

Give—us—our—bread—daily.

Forgive—us—our—lawbreaking—as—we—forgive—those—injure—us.

Lead—us—not—in—temptation,

But—save (break our tied hands)—us—from—lawbreaking.

Because—thine—kingdom, power, and—glory—forever.

Amen.

As already noted, a weakness of Sign Language is the difficulty of writing it without translating it into words, and thereby changing its nature and its world-wide application. Yet it can be written; and some mention of its recorded form may fitly round out this introduction.

The characters used, because they represent ideas, not words or letters, are called ideographs or picture-writing. It is widely believed that Sign Language is the oldest of all languages, that indeed it existed among animals before man appeared on earth. It is universally accepted that the ideograph is the oldest of all writing. The Chinese writing, for instance, is merely picture-writing done with as few lines as possible.

Thus, it is said that their curious character forHearingwas once a complete picture of a person listening behind a screen, but in time it was reduced by hasty hands to a few scratches; andWar, now a few spider marks, was originally a sketch ofTwo women in one house.

We may also record our Sign Language in picture-writing, as was the custom of many Indian tribes; and we shall find it worth while for several reasons: it is picturesque and useful for decoration; and it is likely that a pictographic inscription dug up 10,000 years from now would be read, whether our language was understood or not.3

When the French Government set up the Obelisk of Luxor, in Paris, and wished to inscribe it for all time, they made record, not in French or Latin, but in pictographs.

It is, moreover, a good thing to take the young through the stages of race development; just as the young bird must run for a send-off, before it flies, so pictography, being its earliest form, is the natural first step to writing.

In this dictionary I give the written form after many of the signs that have an established pictograph. These are chiefly from Mallery, 10th Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology. A few are popularly accepted among ourselves.

The letters, initials, etc., after the paragraphs indicate the chief authority for the sign.

Where no authority is given, it means that the sign was observed by myself among the Cheyenne Indians. Those ascribed to other Indians also were observed by myself. Besides these the following are cited:

C.Standing for Captain William Philo Clark, U. S. A.

Scott, for General Hugh L. Scott, U. S. A.

Seger, for John M. Seger, of Colony, Oklahoma.

R. B., for Robert Burns, the Cheyenne interpreter at Concho, Oklahoma.

Long, for Major Stephen H. Long, U. S. A.

Pop.for Popular; that is, established among ourselves.

D.for Deaf Sign, as given in J. Schuyler Long’s Dictionary.

The drawing shows the hands as seen by the second person.

The digits are named: thumb, first or index finger, second or middle finger, third or ring-finger, and fourth or little finger.

The following marks, etc., are used in the illustrations:

Unless otherwise stated thesolid outlineindicates the position of the hands at the beginning of a sign, thedotted outlinesindicate the position of the hands at the finish.

................ Dotted lines indicate the course of hand employed in the sign.

Greater-than sign >Indicates the commencement point of the movement.

Rightwards arrow →Indicates the direction of movement.

Latin capital letter XIndicates the point in the gesture line at which the hand position is (x) changed.

Circled dot ⊙Or full stop represents the termination of the movement.

“A hand” means like A, and “B hand” means like B, etc., in the one-handed Deaf Alphabet (Cut 1) on next page. The positions meant by “4 hand,” “5 hand,” “flat hand,” “flat fist,” or “compressed hand,” are figured on the same page.

Begin by learning the Single-hand Manual alphabet as noted above.

Next learn theNumbersand the signs forQuestionand its combinations; alsoYesandNo,GoodandBad,ComeandGo,BigandSmall,TruthandLie,StrongandWeak,Understand,Perhaps,TalkandSign-talk, after this refer to the Dictionary for the signs that serve your purpose and use them according to the rules of syntax as herein set forth.

Never lose a chance of talking the Sign Language with an old Plains Indian, preferably of the Cheyenne or Arapahoe tribes. Their wonderful facility and grace are as hard to convey on paper as the pronunciation of French, and are as essential for the best style in Sign Talk. One may, indeed, know every sign in this book and not be a good sign-talker, so fundamental is this correct accent, or manner.

The one-handed Deaf Alphabet

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