Make the sign for water, by placing the flat right hand before the face, pointing upward and forward, the back forward, with the wrist as high as the nose; then draw it down and inward toward the chin; then with both hands indicate the outlines of a horizontal oval figure from before the body back to near the chest (being the outline of the deck); then place both flat hands, pointing forward, thumbs higher than the outer edges, and push them forward to arms’-length (illustrating the powerful forward motion of the vessel).

An original sign for telegraph is given in NATCI’S NARRATIVE, infra.

An Indian skilled in signs, as also a deaf-mute, at the sight of a new object, or at the first experience of some new feeling or mental relation, will devise some mode of expressing it in pantomimic gesture or by a combination of previously understood signs, which will be intelligible to others, similarly skilled, provided that they have seen the same objects or have felt the same emotions.  But if a number of such Indians or deaf-mutes were to see an object—­for instance an elephant—­for the first time, each would perhaps hit upon a different sign, in accordance with the characteristic appearance most striking to him.  That animal’s trunk is generally the most attractive lineament to deaf-mutes, who make a sign by pointing to the nose and moving the arm as the trunk is moved.  Others regard the long tusks as the most significant feature, while others are struck by the large head and small eyes.  This diversity of conception brings to mind the poem of “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” which with true philosophy in an amusing guise explains how the sense of touch led the “six men of Indostan” severally to liken the animal to a wall, spear, snake, tree, fan, and rope.  A consideration of invented or original signs, as showing the operation of the mind of an Indian or other uncivilized gesturer, has a psychologic interest, and as connected with the vocal expression, often also invented at the same time, has further value.

DANGER OF SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION.

In the examination of sign language it is important to form a clear distinction between signs proper and symbols.  The terms signs and symbols are often used interchangeably, but with liability to misconstruction, as many persons, whether with right or wrong lexical definition, ascribe to symbols an occult and mystic signification.  All characters in Indian picture-writing have been loosely styled symbols, and, as there is no logical distinction, between the characters impressed with enduring form and when merely outlined in the ambient air, all Indian gestures, motions, and attitudes might with equal appropriateness be called symbolic.  While, however, all symbols come under the generic head of signs, very few signs are in accurate classification symbols.  S.T.  Coleridge has defined a symbol to be a sign included in the idea it represents.