Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1883-07-06
Gesture Language.

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Some eighteen years since | mada an
attempt 10 describe and analyxe the gg>t'
are larguage, in order 10 show lhe oon-
si,lcncy Of principle with which men
lebarrcd irom spoken language, wheth.
ar deaf mntes or men unacqualnled
with one anolhers languages. cQHtrlye
10 utter their own thoughts AMI under
stand the thoughts II Others through
expressive gestures, In these gestures
We have q direct and universal outcome
II the human mind, a system by which
4 deal aud dumb scholar from an En-.
glsh asylum can hold converse with
l.aplanders or lroquols or Chinese
They understand each other because
they use signs for the most part self
expressive and conveying their own
meaning 10 those who never saw
them before. Now, any idea oan be
thus conveyed by self.expresslve signs,
not In one way alone, but many. A hunt.
er Of the prairie for example, has % ex-
press the idea horse this he can do BY
Yarlous signs, as BY the hand so held ~
to imliatca horses head. or by the act Of
straddling palrof forked fingers across
the edge Of the other hand, or by the
initiated motion Of the gallop; dileront
as these II yns are, each tells rs own
tale. When. however. people have
been long used to converse together In
gestures, they are apt tocut them down
into abbreviated forms which do not
show their meaning at first sight, and
might even seem 30 outsiders 20 be arti-
fetal. Thus, awhile man, seeing n
Cheyenne Indian hold his arm
bent forward with the hand closed
kuucklcs upward, was puzzled as TO
what this m ght mean, the Indian, see
ing his look Of pcrplcxity, took stick
and, bending his head and back, COM
pleted the picture into that Of a bent
Old man lnaning on a staff, thus show
ing that the SIGN meant "old man.
Traditional signs may even 90 on after
their reason has passed away, us the
sign OF "stone,' made by hammcring
with the closed fist on the other hand,
q gesture dating from the Stone Age, in
which the Indians lived within few
when their only hammer
was a stone.
These two examples are taken from
the recent careful collection Of North
American gesture signs by Colonel NAL
Iery, published by the Smithsonian In
stitution. The labor and expense which
anthropologists in the United States are
now bestowed ON the study Of the indi-
genous tribes contrasts, am sorry to
say, with the Indifference shown to such
observations in Canada. where the hab-
is Of yet more interesting native tribes
are allowed to die out without even
record. But to return to the gesture
language. This passage of self-express-
We signs into what seem arbitrary signs
throws strong light on the principles Of
spoken language, whore we find few
sounds, such as ntericc-
ions and names Of animals initiated
rom their cries, while the great
majority of words are not even
back to the sclf-express-
We stage from which the analogy
# gesture-languagc leads US to
suppose that they originally sprang.
Moreover, the sequence or collocati0n Of
gesture-signs conforms to fixed rules,
which display the action OF the thinking
mind. The subject must precedc the |
attribute; for instance, such sequence
IS a 'heayy stickh would have no sense I
o the sign-makcr, who necessarily in
reduces the stick before he can cothe
/ with an attribute Phrases, 50 to /
peak, out Of an American gesture
tory Illustrate the gesture-syntax. |
When the linger-tips of the two hands
re brought together to show hut or
vigwam, then pointing to ones own
'reast does the work of the proaoun,
'hut-mine y The sequence "buflalo-
starts with the idea Of
ulalo adds that there was one. and
hen the sign maker having placed the
lea OF that one buffalo before his inter
ocutor, en- imitatiyely shoot at il, and
falls dead. He can even imply the
lea Of causation in the sharp following
t the shot by the animals fall, which
lakes one the instantaneous conse-
uence Of the other.-E. D. Yylor, in
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