MALLERY. ] SIGNS, SYMBOLS, AND EMBLEMS. 391 
SIGNS USED BY WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 
For reasons before given it is important to ascertain the varying ex- 
tent of familiarity with sign language among the members of the several 
tribes, how large a proportion possesses any skill in it, and the average 
amount of their vocabulary. Itis also of special interest to learn the de- 
gree to which women become proficient, and the age at which children 
commence its practice; also whether they receive systematic instruction 
in it. The statement was made by Titchkematski that the Kaiowa and 
Comanche women know nothing of sign language, while the Cheyenne 
women are versed in it. As he is a Cheyenne, however, he may not 
have a large circle of feminine acquaintances beyond his own tribe, 
and his negative testimony is not valuable. Rev. A. J. Holt, from 
large experience, asserts that the Kaiowa and Comanche women do 
know and practice sign language, though the Cheyenne either are more 
familiar with it than the Kaiowa or have a greater degree of expert- 
ness. The Comanche women, he says, are the peers of any sign-talkers. 
Colonel Dodge makes the broad assertion that even among the Plains 
tribes only the old, or at least middle-aged, men use signs properly, 
and that he has not seen any women or even young men who were at 
all reliable in signs. He gives this statement to show the difficulty in 
acquiring sign language; but it is questionable if the fact is not simply 
the result of the rapid disuse of signs, in many tribes, by which cause 
women, not so frequently called upon to employ them, and the younger 
generation, who have had no necessity to learn them, do not become 
expert. Disappearing Mist, as before mentioned, remembers a time 
when the Iroquois women and children used signs more than the men. 
It is also asserted, with some evidence, that the signs used by males 
and females are different, though mutually understood, and some minor 
points for observation may be indicated, such as whether the commence- 
ment of counting upon the fingers is upon those of the right or tlfe left 
hand, and whether Indians take pains to look toward the south when 
suggesting the course of the sun, which would give the motion from 
left to right. 
A suggestion has been made by a correspondent that some secret 
signs of affiliation are known and used by the members of the several 
associations, religious and totemic, which have been often noticed among 
several Indian tribes. No evidence of this has been received, but the 
point is worth attention. 
POSITIVE SIGNS RENDERED NEGATIVE. 
In many cases positive signs to convey some particular idea are not 
reported, and in their place asign with the opposite signification is given, 
coupled with the sign of negation. In other words, the only mode of 
expressing the intended meaning is supposed to be by negation of the 
reverse of what it is desired to describe. In this manner ‘“fool—no,” 
