MALLERY.] FINGER AND HAND POSITIONS. 393 
EXTRACTS FROM DICTIONARY, infra. Thisreproduction of the animal’s 
peculiar claws, with the hand in any position relative to the body, would 
suffice without the pantomime of scratching in the air, which is added 
only if the sign without it should not be at once comprehended. 
‘MOTIONS RELATIVE TO PARTS OF THE BODY. 
The specified relation of the positions and motions of the hands to 
different parts of the body is essential to the formation and description 
of many signs. Those for speak, hear, and see, which must be respect- 
ively made relative to the mouth, ear and eye, are manifest examples; 
and there are others less obviously dependent upon parts of the body, 
such as the heart or head, which would not be intelligible without appo- 
sition. There are also some directly connected with height from the 
ground and other points of reference. In, however, a large proportion 
of the signs noted the position of the hands with reference to the body 
can be varied or disregarded. The hands making the motions can be 
held high or low, as the gesturer is standing or sitting, or the person 
addressed is distant or near by. These variations have been partly dis- 
cussed under the head of abbreviations. While descriptions made with 
great particularity are cumbrous, it is desirable to give the full detail 
of that gesture which most clearly carries out the generic conception, 
with, if possible, also the de- 
scription of such deviations 
and abbreviations as are most 
confusing. For instance, itis 
well to explain that signs for 
yes and no, described with pre- 
cise detail as in EXTRACTS 
FROM DICTIONARY, infra, are 
also often made by an Indian 
when wrapped in his blanket 
with only a for etinger protrud- 
ing, the former by amere down- 
ward and the latter by a sim- 
ple outward bend of that 
finger. An example may be 
also taken from the following 
sign for lie, falsehood, made by 
an Arikara, Fig. 233, in which 
theseparated index and second fingers are moved sidewise in a downward 
line near but below the mouth, which may be compared with other exe- 
cutions of the motion with the same position of the fingers directly 
forward from the mouth, and with that given in LEAN WoLr’s Com- 
PLAIN?, illustrated on page 528, in which the motion is made carelessly 
across the body. The original sign was undoubtedly made directly 
from the mouth, the conception being “two tongues,” two accounts or 
