Clinch the hand and strike from above downward. (Wied.) I do not remember this.  I have given you the sign for killing with a stroke. (Matthews.) There is an evident similarity in conception and execution between the (Oto and Missouri I) sign and Wied’s. (Boteler.) I have frequently seen this sign made by the Arikara, Gros Ventre, and Mandan Indians at Fort Berthold Agency. (McChesney.) This motion, which maybe more clearly expressed as the downward thrust of a knife held in the clinched hand, is still used by many tribes for the general idea of “kill,” and illustrates the antiquity of the knife as a weapon. Wied does not say whether the clinched hand is thrust downward with the edge or the knuckles forward.  The latter is now the almost universal usage among the same tribes from which he is supposed to have taken his list of signs, and indicates the thrust of a knife more decisively than if the fist were moved with the edge in advance.  The actual employment of arrow, gun, or club in taking life, is, however, often specified by appropriate gesture.

Smite the sinister palm earthward with the dexter fist sharply, in sign of “going down”; or strike out with the dexter fist toward the ground, meaning to “shut down”; or pass the dexter under the left forefinger, meaning to “go under.” (Burton.)

Right hand cast down. (Macgowan.)

Hold the right fist, palm down, knuckles forward, and make a thrust forward and downward. (Arapaho II; Cheyenne V; Dakota VI, VII, VIII; Hidatsa I; Ponka II; Arikara I; Pani I.) Fig. 268.

[Illustration:  Fig. 268.]

Right hand clinched, thumb lying along the finger tips, elevated to near the shoulder, strike downward and out vaguely in the direction of the object to be killed.  The abstract sign for kill is simply to clinch the right hand in the manner described and strike it down and out from the right side. (Cheyenne II.)

Close the right hand, extending the forefinger alone; point toward the breast, then throw from you forward, bringing the hand toward the ground. (Ojibwa V; Omaha I.)

Both hands clinched, with the thumbs resting against the middle joints of the forefingers, hold the left transversely in front of and as high as the breast, then push the right, palm down, quickly over and down in front of the left. (Absaroka I; Shoshoni and Banak I.) “To force under—­literally.”

With the dexter fist carried to the front of the body at the right side, strike downward and outward several times, with back of hand upward, thumb toward the left, several times. (Dakota I.) “Strike down.”

With the first and second joints of the fingers of the right hand bent, end of thumb against the middle of the index, palm downward, move the hand energetically forward and downward from a foot in front of the right breast.  Striking with a stone—­man’s first weapon. (Dakota, IV.)