432 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 
and pass the right, back upward, with index extended, or all of the fingers 
extended, and pointing forward, about eighteen inches forward under- 
neath the left through an are from near the mouth. Some at the same 
time move the left hand toward the breast. (Dakota IV.) 
, Entering a. 
The left hand is held with the back upward, and the right hand also 
with the back up is passed in a curvilinear direction down under the 
other, so as to rub against its palm, then up on the other side of it. The 
left hand here represents the low door of the skin lodge and the right 
the man stooping down to pass in. (Long.) 
Pass the flat right hand in short curves under the left, which is held 
a short distance forward. (Wéied.) I have described the same sign. It 
is not necessary to pass the hand more than once. By saying curves, he 
seems to imply many passes. If the hand is passed more than once it 
means repetition of the act. (Mathews ; McChesney.) The conception is 
of the stooping to pass through the low entrance, which is often covered 
by a flap of skin, sometimes stretched on a frame, and which must be 
shoved aside, and the subsequent rising when the entrance has been ac- 
complished. A distinction is reported by a correspondent as follows: 
“Tf the intention is to speak of a person entering the gesturer’s own 
lodge, the right hand is passed under the left and toward the body, near 
which the left hand is held; if of a person entering the lodge of another, 
the left hand is held further from the body and the right is passed under 
it and outward. In both cases both hands are slightly curved and com- 
pressed.” As no such distinction is reported by others it may be an 
individual invention or peculiarity. 
A gliding movement of the extended hand, fingers joined, backs up, 
downward, then ascending, indicative of the stoopmg and resumption 
of the upright position in entering the same. (Arapaho 1.) 
(1) Sign for LopG®, the left hand being still in position used in mak- 
ing sign for LopGE; (2) forefinger and thumb of right hand brought 
to a point and thrust through the outline of an imaginary lodge repre- 
sented by the left hand. (Cheyenne I1.) 
First make the sign for LODGE, then place the left hand, horizontal 
and slightly arched, before the body, and pass the right hand with ex- 
tended index underneath the left—forward and slightly upward beyond 
it. (Absaroka 1; Dakota V; Shoshoni and Banak 1; Wyandot 1.) 
Left hand (W), ends of fingers toward the right, stationary in front 
of the left breast; pass the right hand directly and quickly out from 
the breast under the stationary left hand, ending with the extended 
fingers of the right hand pointing outward and slightly downward, 
joined, palm downward flat, horizontal(W). (Dakotal.) ‘Gone under; 
covered.” 
