354 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
which in most cases conveys the idea of measuring or weighing, as ap- 
pears from the following samples: dibaige, he measures; dibowe, he set- 
tles matters by his speech or word, e. g., as a juryman; dibaamage, he 
pays out; dibakonige, he judges; dibabishkodjige, he weighs; dibamenimo, 
he restricts himself, e. g., to a certain quantity of food; dibissitchige, he 
fulfills a promise ; dibijigan, a pattern for cutting clothes. 
“The original meaning of tib, however, must be supposed to have 
been more comprehensive, if we would explain other (apparent) deriva- 
tives, such as: tibi, ‘I don’t know where, where to, where from,’ &c; 
tibik, night; dibendjige, he is master or owner; titibisse, it rolls (as a ball), 
it turns (as a wheel); dibaboweigan, the cover of a kettle. The notion 
of measuring does not very naturally enter into the ideas expressed 
by these terms. 
“he difficulty disappears if we assume the root tib or dib to have 
been originally the phonetic equivalent of a gesture expressive of the 
notion of covering as well as of that of measuring. This gesture would 
seem to be the holding of one hand above the other, horizontally, at 
some distance, palms opposite or both downwards. This, or some simi- 
lar gesture would most naturally accompany the above terms. As for 
tibik, night, compare (Dunbar): ‘The two hands open and extended, 
crossing one another horizontally.’ The idea of covering evidently en- 
ters into this conception. The strange adverb tibi (‘I don’t know 
where,’ &e., or ‘in a place unknown to me’), if derived from the same 
root, would originally signify ‘covered.’ In titibisse, or didibisse (it rolls, 
it turns), the reduplication of the radical syllable indicates the repeti- 
tion of the gesture, by holding the hands alternately above one another, 
palms downwards, and thus producing a rotary motion. 
“Tn German, the clasping of the hands in a horizontal position, ex- 
pressive of a promise or the conclusion of a bargain, is frequently 
accompanied by the interjection top! the same radical consonants as in 
tib. Compare also the English tap, the French tape, the Greek, tézrw 
the Sanscrit tup and tub, &c.” 
GESTURES CONNECTED WITH THE ORIGIN OF WRITING. 
Though written characters are generally associated with speech, they 
are shown, by successful employment in hieroglyphs and by educated 
deaf-mutes to be representative of ideas without the intervention of 
sounds, and so also are the outlines of signs. This will be more ap- 
parent if the motions expressing the most prominent feature, attribute, 
or function of an object are made, or supposed to be made, so as to 
leave a luminous track impressible upon the eye separate from the mem- 
bers producing it. The actual result is an immateriate graphic repre- 
sentation of visible objects and qualities which, invested with sub- 
stance, has become familiar to us as the rebus, and also appears in the 
form of heraldic blazonry styled punning or “ canting.” 
Gesture language is, in fact, not only a picture language, but is actual 
writing, though dissolving and sympathetic, and neither alphabetic nor 
phonetic. 
