GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 903 



are comuion to all maukind, but in the greater part of the United 

 States the sign language is rapidly falling into disuse, both because of 

 the destruction of the bulit'alo, tiie pursuit of which was participated 

 iu by many tribes of diverse languages, a condition which brought 

 about a most highly developed gesture language, and also because of 

 the rapid settlement of the country and the consequent restrictions of 

 Indians traveling from place to place, which also served to keep alive 

 gesture speech. The adoption of the Spanish lan- 

 guage by. the Indians on the southwest border, and 

 the Chinook jargon in the north, also helped to resume 

 the need of a resort to gesture, the i)resent methods 

 of oral speech, mutually intelligible, being vastly 

 superior and more satisf\ictory. *'»«• i-o. 



The use of gesture speech by the Eskimo is well "^"^'' ™^'^^' ^^''''''' 



^ 0. ./ GESTURES. 



known, andrej)eated instances showingthe attempted 



reproduction, graphically, of gesture signs occur in the ivory records, 



some examples of which are reproduced. 



To facilitate further study in this line of investigation, the writer 

 submits a collection of gesture signs used by the Eskimo and other 

 tribes of southern xVlaska, a collection made some years since, though 

 hitherto unpublished. 



PICTOGRAPHS OF GESTURE SIGNS. 



N^o. 1 of fig. 120 represents a shaman waving his hands and arms, as 

 if he were stirring up the air above his head, the motive being the 

 invocation of benign spirits to aid him iu his work. The rested figure 

 shown in Ko. 2, denotes the man making application for aid, and his 

 arms are extended upward in like manner, but iu this instance denoting 

 supplication^ the difference between the two being that the latter is 

 rested upon the ground to indicate his asMng for aid, whereas the 

 shaman is portrayed not only erect, but in the attitude of 

 dancing, Avith his song and incantations. 



The illustration given in fig. 121 is taken from an ivory 

 drill bow in the National Museum, marked as from Xortou 

 Fig. 121. Sound, Alaska. The figure represents the gesture sign, or 



SIGNAL OF DIS- • i r> t t ,t ■ • , .^ .^ , „ 



covERY. '"Signal ot discovery. In this instance the game consists of 

 whales, and the signal is made by holding the boat paddle 

 aloft and horizontally. 



Fig. 122 represents a number of natives fishing through the.ice.for 

 seal. The individual represented at No. 1 is dragging an animal out 

 of the water, a hole having been cut for breathing i)lace at which these 

 animals make their appearance. No. 2 has a seal upon the ice and 

 appears to have great difticulty in i)ulling it along. No, 3 is preparing 

 to spear an animal, his watchful attitude being apparent. No. 4 is 

 holding aloft his harpoon or lance, making a signal that he has discov- 

 ered game, or hears it, and thereby warns others near by to be silent. 



