[Illustration:  Fig. 204.]

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

Fig. 205 is the Egyptian character for veneration, to glorify (Champollion, Dict., 29), the author’s understanding being that the hands are raised in surprise, astonishment.

[Illustration:  Fig. 205.]

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

[Illustration:  Fig. 206.]

Fig. 206 is a copy of an Egyptian tablet reproduced from Cooper’s Serpent Myths, page 28.  A priest kneels before the great goddess Ranno, while supplicating her favor.  The conception of the author is that the hands are raised by the supplicant to shield his face from the glory of the divinity.  It may be compared with signs for asking for mercy and for giving mercy to another, the former being:  Extend both forefingers, pointing upward, palms toward the breast, and hold the hands before the chest; then draw them inward toward their respective sides, and pass them up ward as high as the sides of the head by either cheek. (Kaiowa I; Comanche III; Apache II; Wichita II.) The latter, to have mercy on another, as made by the same tribes, is:  Hold both hands nearly side by side before the chest, palms forward, forefinger only extended and pointing upward; then move them forward and upward, as if passing them by the cheeks of another person from the breast to the sides of the head.

[Illustration:  Fig. 207.]

A similar gesture for supplication appears in Fig. 207, taken from
Kingsborough, loc. cit., III, pt.  I, p. 24.

[Illustration:  Fig. 208.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 209.]

An Indian gesture sign for smoke, and also one for fire, has been described above, page 344.  With the former is connected the Aztec design (Fig. 208) taken from Pipart, loc. cit., II, 352, and the latter appears in Fig. 209, taken from Kingsborough, III, pt.  I, p. 21.

A sign for medicine-man, shaman, is thus described:  “With its index-finger extended and pointing upward, or all the fingers extended, back of hand outward, move the right hand from just in front of the forehead, spirally upward, nearly to arm’s length, from left to right.” (Dakota IV.)