The writer has before been careful to explain that he does not present any signs as precisely those of primitive man, not being so carried away by enthusiasm as to suppose them possessed of immutability and immortality not found in any other mode of human utterance.  Yet such signs as are generally prevalent among Indian tribes, and also in other parts of the world, must be of great antiquity.  The use of derivative meanings to a sign only enhances this presumption.  At first there might not appear to be any connection between the ideas of same and wife, expressed by the sign of horizontally extending the two forefingers side by side.  The original idea was doubtless that given by the Welsh captain in Shakspere’s Henry V:  “’Tis so like as my fingers is to my fingers,” and from this similarity comes “equal,” “companion,” and subsequently the close life-companion “wife.”  The sign is used in each of these senses by different Indian tribes, and sometimes the same tribe applies it in all of the senses as the context determines.  It appears also in many lands with all the significations except that of “wife.”  It is proper here to mention that the suggestion of several correspondents that the Indian sign as applied to “wife” refers to “lying together” is rendered improbable by the fact that when the same tribes desire to express the sexual relation of marriage it is gestured otherwise.  Many signs but little differentiated were unstable, while others that have proved the best modes of expression have survived as definite and established.  Their prevalence and permanence being mainly determined by the experience of their utility, it would be highly interesting to ascertain how long a time was required for a distinctly new conception or execution to gain currency, become “the fashion,” so to speak, over a large part of the continent, and to be supplanted by a new “mode.”  A note may be made in this connection of the large number of diverse signs for horse, all of which must have been invented within a comparatively recent period, and the small variation in the signs for dog, which are probably ancient.

SURVIVAL IN GESTURE.

Even when the specific practice of sign language has been generally discontinued for more than one generation, either from the adoption of a jargon or from the common use of the tongue of the conquering English, French, or Spanish, some of the gestures formerly employed as substitutes for words may survive as a customary accompaniment to oratory or impassioned conversation, and, when ascertained, should be carefully noted.  An example, among many, may be found in the fact that the now civilized Muskoki or Creeks, as mentioned by Rev. H.F.  Buckner, when speaking of the height of children or women, illustrate their words by holding their hands at the proper elevation, palm up; but when describing the height of “soulless” animals or inanimate objects, they hold the palm downward.