OFTHEHUMANFAMILY. 227 



acquire this language, and none of the natives, as far as I could learn, spoke 

 English. It was necessary to work it out through the Blackfoot, which many of 

 thcni speak ; and in this I was assisted by Mrs. Culbertson before mentioned. 

 TJie woman from whom it was obtained was the wife of a Frenclr trader, and spoke 

 the Blackfoot.^ The work would have been made more complete if direct commu- 

 nication had been possible. It was carried sufficiently far to ascertain the indica- 

 tive relationships, and to establish the identity of the system with the common 

 form. 



First Indicative Feature. My brother's son and daughter, Ego a male, are'my son 

 and daughter. With Ego a female, they are my nephew and niece. 



Second. My sister's son and daughter, Ego a male, are my nephew and niece. 

 Witli Ego a female, they are my son and daughter. 



Third. My father's brother is my father. 



Fourth. My father's brother's son and daughter are my brother and sister, elder 

 or younger. 



Fifth. My father's sister is my aunt. 



Sixth. My mother's brother is my uncle. 



Seventh. My mother's sister is my mother. 



Eighth. My mother's sister's son and daughter are my "brother and sister, elder 

 or younger. 



Ninth. My grandfether's brother is my grandfather. 



Tenth. The grandchildren of my brothers and sisters, and the grandchildren of 

 my collateral brothers and sisters, are my grandchildren. 



With respect to the children of a brother and sister, they are also brothers and 

 sisters to each other. This last classiiication is not in accordance with the princi- 

 ples of the system. 



The Ahahnelins close the series of Algonkin nations represented in the Table. 



' A very singular fact may be mentioned in connection with E-tha'-he, the Ahahnelin woman from 

 whom it was obtained. After ascertaining that she could speak her language and the Blackfoot 

 only, I sought her husband, supposing that I could communicate with her through him ; but I found 

 that he could neither speak her language, nor she his ; and that there was no common articulate lan- 

 guage which both understood. When asked whether she was really his wife, he replied that she was, 

 and to the question how long they had been married, he answered three years. When finally asked 

 how he was able to communicate with her, the singular fact was stated that "they conversed with 

 each other by the language of signs." It may not be generally known that there is a fully developed 

 and very expressive language of signs, in common use among the western Indian nations, by means 

 of which they are able to communicate all of the ordinary wants of life, besides general information 

 upon a great variety of subjects. I have seen a Minnitaree and Arickaree, who could not speak a 

 word of each other's language, sit down together and converse for hours by signs alone. Many of the 

 traders know this language, and speak of its efficacy in the highest terms of praise. The motions 

 are easy and graceful, and the signs ingenious and expressive. I think we find in this sign language 

 the germinal principle from which came, first, the pietographs of the Northern Indians, and of the 

 Aztecs ; and severally, as its ultimate development, the ideographic, and possibly, the hieroglyphic 

 language of the Palenqne and Copan monuments. 'When I mentioned the case of this woman to 

 Father De Smet, he informed me that he had known a number of such instances among the nations 

 in the valley of the Columbia. 



