MALLERY.] GESTURES OF ANCIENT GREEKS. 29 
speech, the votes of each member of the council, with the degree of posi- 
tiveness or interest felt by each, can be ascertained. Athené in anima- 
ted motion turns her eyes to the right, and extends her left arm and 
hand to the left, with her right hand brandishing a lance in the same 
direction, in which her feet show her to be ready to spring. She is urg- 
ing the figures on her right to follow her at once to at- 
tempt some dangerous enterprise. Of these the elderly 
- man, who is calmly seated, 
holds his right hand flat 
and reversed, and suspend- 
ed slightly above his knee. 
This probably is the end- 5 
FIG. 68. ing of the modern Nea- Fic. 69. 
politan gesture, Fig. 68, which signifies hesitation, advice to pause 
before hasty action, ‘go slowly,” and commences higher with < 
gentle wavering movement downward. This can be compared with 
the sign of some of our Indians, Fig. 69, for wait! slowly! The 
female figure at the left of the group, standing firmly and decidedly, 
raises her left hand directed to the goddess with the palm vertical. If 
this is supposed to be a stationary gesture 
it means, ‘wait! stop!” It may, however, 
be the commencement of the last mentioned 
gesture, ‘go slow.” 
Both of these members of the council ad- 
vise delay and express doubt of the pro- 
priety of immediate action. 
The sitting warrior on the left of Athené presents his left hand flat 
and carried well up. This position, supposed to be stationary, now 
means to ask, inquire, and itmay 
be that he inquires of the other 
veteran what reasons he can pro- 
duce for his temporizing policy. 
This may be collated with the 
modern Neapolitan sign for ask, Fic. 71. 
Fig. 70, and the common Indian sign for “tell me!” Fig. 71. In connec- 
tion with this it is also interesting to compare the Australian sign for 
interrogation, Fig. 72, and also the Comanche Indian sign for give me, 
Fig. 301, page 480, infra. If, however, the artist had 
the intention to represent the flat hand as in motion 
from below upward, as is probable from the connec- 
tion, the meaning is much, greatly. He strongly dis- 
approves the counsel of the opposite side. Our In- 
dians often express the idea of quantity, much, with 
the same conception of comparative height, by an upward motion of 
the extended palm, but with them the palm is held downward. The 
last figure to the right, by the action of his whole body, shows his rejece- 
