352 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
to be selected, and the verb changes its form by inflection and incor- 
porated particles to denote person, number, and gender as animate or 
inanimate, and gender as standing, sitting, or lying, and case; and the 
form of the verb would also express whether the killing was done acci- 
dentally or purposely, and whether it was by shooting or by some other 
process, and, if by shooting, whether by bow and arrow, or with a gun; 
and the form of the verb would in like manner have to express all of 
these things relating to the object; that is, the person, number, gender, 
and case of the object; and from the multiplicity of paradigmatic forms 
of the verb to kill, this particular one would have to be selected.” This 
is substantially the mode in which an Indian sign talker would find it 
necessary to tell the story, as is shown by several examples given below 
in narratives, speeches, and dialogues. 
Indian languages exhibit the same fondness for demonstration which 
is necessary in sign language. The two forms of utterance are alike in 
their want of power to express certain words, such as the verb “ to be,” 
and in the criterion of organization, so far as concerns a high degree of 
synthesis and imperfect differentiation, they bear substantially the same 
relation to the English language. 
It may finally be added that as not only proper names but nouns gen- 
erally in Indian languages are connotive, predicating some attribute of 
the object, they can readily be expressed by gesture signs, and therefore 
among them, if anywhere, it is to be expected that relations may be 
established between the words and the signs. 
ETYMOLOGY OF WORDS FROM GESTURES. 
There can be no attempt in the present limits to trace the etymology 
of any large number of words in the several Indian languages to a gest- 
ural origin, nor, if the space allowed, would it be satisfactory. The 
signs have scarcely yet been collected, verified, and collated in sufficient 
numbers for such comparison, even with the few of the Indian languages 
the radicals of which have been scientifically studied. The signs will, 
in a future work, be frequently presented in connection with the corre- 
sponding words of the gesturers, as is done now in a few instances in 
another part of this paper. For the present the subject is only indicated 
by the following examples, introduced to suggest the character of the 
study in which the students of American linguistics are urgently re- 
quested to assist: 
The Dakota word Sha*te-suta—from sha"le, heart, and suta, strong— 
brave, not cowardly, literally strong-hearted, is made by several tribes of 
that stock, and particularly by the Brulé Sioux, in gestures by collect- 
ing the tips of the fingers and thumb of the right hand to a point, and 
then placing the radial side of the hand over the heart, finger tips point- 
ing downward—heart; then place the left fist, palm inward, horizon- 
tally before the lower portion of the breast, the right fist back of the 
