Evening star., 1900-10-05
BY MEANS OF SIGNALS
SOME INDIAN METHODS OF COM
MUNICATING INFORMATION.
Their Use of Fire and SmOxe-Mastery
of Sign Talk Was n Diff
cult Matter.
From the Chicago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.
The traveller upon the plains in the early
days soon learned the significance Of the
spires of smoke which he sometimes saw
rising from a distant ridge or hill. and
which in turn he might see answered from
different direction 1t was the signal
talk of the Indians across miles of inter-
vening ground. a signal used In ralying the
warriors for an attack or warning them
for a retreat when that seemed advisable.
The Indian had a way of sending up the
smoke in rings or puffs, knowing that such
a smoke column would at once be noticed
and understood a signal and not taken
for the smoke of some camp fire. He made
the rings by covering his little fire with his
blanket for moment, then suddenly re-
moving the blanket and allowing the smoke
to ascend. when he instantly covered up
the fire again. The column of ascending
smoke rings said to every Indian within
circle of perhaps twenty or thirty miles,
Look out. There Is an enemy near"
Three smokes built close together meant
Danger" One smoke merely said "At-
tention." Two smokes meant Camp at
this place" Travel the plains and the use
fulness of this long distance telephone will
quickly become apparent
Sonnet times at night the settler or traveller
saw fiery lines crossing the sky. shooting
up and falling, perhaps taking direction
diagonal to the line of vision He might
guess that these were the signals of the
Indians, but unless he were an Old-timer he
might not be able to interpret the signals.
The old-timer and the squaw man knew
that one fire arrow tan arrow prepared by
treating the head of the shaft with gun
powder and fine bark) meant the same as
the column of smoke puffs, viz. "An enemy
Is near" Two fire arrows meant Danger.
Three arrows said imperatively, This dam
ger is great" Several arrows said. THE
enemy are too many for u.s." Two ar
rows shot UP into the air at once meant.
We shall attack" Three at once said,
a diagonal direction said plainly as
pointing finger, THAT way" Thus the
untutored savage could telephone fairly
we'll at night as well as in the daytime.
To learn the simple signals Of the plains
was easy to any one who cared to do so,
but the mastery Of the sign talk was mat
ter far more complex and difficult and for
some white men the task was too much. In
deed, 1t seems that there were degrees of
proficiency in the sign talk even among the
Indians themselves, and they certainly made
distinction between the signs used by wo-
men and those employed by men. The wo-
man was not accredited by her savage lord
with intelligence sufficient to use the
choicest and most elegant sign language.
But some Of the Indian signs are simple
and readily understood. When the sign
talker straddles his left hand with the two
split fingers of the right you caught the
idea of horse" almost at once. When he
held the hands thus and advanced them
with a series Of short, choppy, forward
movements, you saw that the horse was
going, that 1t was galloping. When the
talker hooked his two forefngers and held
his hands up at the side of his head you
saw the hooked horns of the buffalo, and
you knew what he meant. If he thrust both
arms above his head, spread out, you saw
the branching antlers of the elk unnlistak
ably. The wolf sign, the first two fingers
Of each hand held close together and up
right at each side OF the head, indicated the
erect ears Of that animal plainly. Not quite
so plain. yet plain enough If you are
hunter was the sign of the mountain big
horn sheep-the two hands, one at each
side Of the head, describing the outward and
forward curve of the horns. The finger and
thumb slightly approached and held at the
side of the head indicated less obviously
the prong horn of the antelope. The sign
for snake was simple and any one could un-
derstand 1.-THE extended forefinger thrust
out before the body in a waving line, like
the course Of the snake in travelling. Not
quite so obvious is the sign for 'le, liar, he
lies" Here we get back to the ancient
symbol of the serpent. which seems to be
the synonym for duplicity among all peo-
pies and for all times. The liar sign Is
made everywhere by the forked fingers
thrust out in front Of the mouth. or across
the body-"He speaks with a forked
tongue" This Is ancient Indian rhetoric
for you, but 1t is correct. The sign for
truth 1t Is true" would obviously be the
single finger used In q similar manner-"He
speaks with a single tongue"