392 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
would be wise,” and “ good—no,” would be “bad.” This mode of expres- 
sion is very frequent as a matter of option when the positive signs are in 
fact alsoused. The reported absence of positive signs for the ideas neg- 
atived is therefore often made with as little propriety as if when an or- 
dinary speaker chose to use the negative form ‘not good,” it should be 
inferred that he was ignorant of the word “bad.” It will seldom prove, 
on proper investigation, that where sign language has reached and re- 
tained any high degree of development it will show such poverty as to 
require the expedient of negation of an affirmative to express an idea 
which is intrinsically positive. 
DETAILS OF POSITIONS OF FINGERS. 
The signs of the Indians appear to consist of motions more often than 
of positions—a fact enhancing the difficulty both of their description 
and illustration—and the motions when not designedly abbreviated are 
generally large, free, and striking, seldom minute. It seems also to be 
the general rule among Indians as among deaf-mutes that the point of 
the finger is used to trace outlines and the palm of the hand to describe 
surfaces. J‘rom an examination of the identical signs made to each 
other for the same object by Indians of the same tribe and band, they 
appear to make many gestures with little regard to the position of the 
fingers and to vary in such arrangement from individual taste. Some 
of the elaborate descriptions, giving with great detail the attitude of the 
fingers of any particular gesturer and the inches traced by his motions, 
are of as little necessity as would be, when quoting a written word, a 
careful reproduction of the flourishes of tailed letters and the thickness 
of down-strokes in individual chirography. The fingers must be in some 
position, but that is frequently accidental, not contributing to the gen- 
eral and essential effect. An example may be given in the sign for white 
man which Medicine Bull, infra, page 491, made by drawing the palmar 
surface of the extended index across the forehead, and in LEAN WOLF’S 
COMPLAINT, infra, page 526, the same motion is made by the back of the 
thumb pressed upon the middle joint of the index, fist closed. The execu- 
tion as well as the conception in both cases was the indication of the line of 
the hat on the forehead, and the position of the fingers in forming the line 
is altogether immaterial. There is often also a custom or “fashion” in 
which not only different tribes, but different persons in the same tribe, 
gesture the same sign with different degrees of beauty, for there is cal- 
ligraphy in sign language, though no recognized orthography. It is 
nevertheless better to describe and illustrate with unnecessary minute- 
ness than to failin reporting a real distinction. There are, also, in 
fact, many signs formed by mere positions of the fingers, some of which 
are abbreviations, but in others the arrangement of the fingers in itself 
forms a picture. An instance of the latter is one of the signs given for 
the bear, viz.: Middle and third finger of right hand clasped down by 
the thumb, fore and little finger extended crooked downward. See 
