330 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
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 as- 
certain 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 com- 
paratively 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 ora- 
tory or impassioned conversation, and, when ascertained, should be care- 
fully noted. An example, among many, may be found in the fact that 
the now civilized Muskoki or Creeks, as mentioned by Rev. H. F. Buck- 
ner, 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. ‘his, when correlated with the distinct- 
ive signs of other Indians, is an interesting case of the survival of a 
practice which, so far as yet reported, the oldest men of the tribe now 
living only remember to have once existed. It is probable that a col- 
lection of such distinctive gestures among the most civilized Indians 
would reproduce enough of their ancient system to be valuable, while 
possibly the persistent inquirer might in his search discover some of its 
surviving custodians even among Chahta or Cheroki. Innuit or Abnaki, 
Klamath or Nutka. 
DISTINCTION BETWEEN IDENTITY OF SIGNS AND THEIR USE AS AN ART. 
The general report that there is but one sign language in North Amer- 
ica, any deviation from which is either blunder, corruption, or a dialect in 
the nature of provincialism, may be examined in reference to some of the 
misconceived facts which gave it origin and credence. It may not appear 
to be necessary that such examination should be directed to any mode of 
collecting and comparing signs which would amount to their distortion. 
It is useful, however, to explain that distortion would result from follow- 
ing the views of a recent essayist, who takes the ground that the descrip- 
tion of signs should be made according to a “‘mean” or average. There 
can be no philosophic consideration of signs according to a ‘“‘mean” of ob- 
servations. The proper object is to ascertain the radical or essential part 
