GREETING BY GESTURE. 64 i 



Sometimes tlie hand was put first to the forehead and then to the 

 heart perhaps to symbolize that intellect and love are at the dis- 

 posal of the one addressed. In this simple form, but as an invo- 

 cation, the sign has been translated as " may my head be the 

 penalty if my heart be false ! " A similar gesture, imitating with 

 the hand the act of cutting the throat, and sometimes before and 

 sometimes afterward touching the heart, is represented as having 

 the same significance, " On my head be it ! " 



In Greece the ancient style of greeting a priest is still observed 

 by placing the hand on the breast and inclining forward ; and the 

 Lander party in the Niger basin were obliged to bend forward 

 and to place their hands with solemnity on their heads and 

 breasts. Tribes of Eskimos in 1833 saluted by patting their 

 breasts and pointing to the heavens. In the same year a Kansas 

 warrior grasped hands with the party greeted and then pressed 

 his own bare breast. In 1886 tribes of eastern equatorial Africa, 

 with the same intent of friendship, grasped hands and rapped 

 their own breasts. All these gestures meant that the heart was 

 " good," perhaps poetically then it beat in sympathy. The Fue- 

 gians, as a greeting of friendship, pat their own breasts, conclud- 

 ing by three hand-slaps given at the same time on the breast and 

 back of the friend, then bare their own bosoms for a return of 

 the slaps. A Texan tribe, in 1685, expressed friendship by laying 

 their hands on their hearts, and evidently expected La Salle's 

 party to respond in the same manner, which was done. A Ha-va- 

 su-pai, of Arizona, grasps the hand of a friend on meeting, mov- 

 ing the hand up and down in time to the words of his greeting ; 

 and, as he lets it go, lifts his own hollow palm toward his mouth, 

 then, with a sudden and graceful motion, passes it down over his 

 heart. Here, in addition to the concluding emphasis connected 

 with the heart, there is a motion which might be mistaken for 

 hand-kissing, and also the nearest approach to "shaking" the 

 hand among savages or barbarians which has been accurately 

 reported. But to beat the time of a rhythmic formula is very 

 different from the English pump-handle shake, even when it was 

 less hideous than the last " fad " with the raised elbow, and its 

 intent is the very opposite of Mr. Spencer's struggle. 



Two of the special signs for " good " in the sign-language of 

 the Indians may be mentioned as in point. Hold the extended 

 right hand, back up, in front of and close to the left breast, fin- 

 gers extended, touching, and pointing to left (index-finger usually 

 rests against the breast in this position) ; move the hand briskly, 

 well out to front and right, keeping it in the same horizontal 

 plane. Concept, " Level with the heart." Or pass the opened 

 right hand, palm downward, through an arc of about ninety 

 degrees from the heart, about two feet horizontally forward and 



