MALLERY.] DIALOGUE BETWEEN ALASKAN INDIANS. 493 
of the Russian language in former times as a medium of trade and gen- 
eral intercourse has certainly prevented observations of this primitive 
linguistic feature in all the vast regions visited by the Russians. On 
the other hand, the homogeneous elements of the Innuit tongue, spoken 
along the whole seacoast from the Arctic to the Alaskan Peninsula, and 
the Island of Kadiak, has, toa great extent, abolished all causes for the 
employment of sign language between tribes in their mutual intercourse. 
Basing their opinions upon what they saw while touching upon the coast 
here and there, even the acknowledged authorities on Alaskan matters 
have declared that sign language did not and could not exist in all that 
country. Without entering into any lengthened dispute upon this ques- 
tion, I venture to present in the subjoined pages a succinct account of 
at least one instance where I saw natives of different tribes converse 
with each other only by means of signs and gestures within the bounda- 
ries of Alaska. 
In the month of September, 1866, there arrived on the Lower Kinnik 
River, a stream emptying its waters into Cook’s Inlet, two Indians from 
a distant region, who did not speak the Kenaitzelanguage. The people 
of the settlement at which the strangers inade their first appearance 
were equally ata loss to understand the visitors. At last a chief of 
great age, bearing the name of Chatidoolts (mentioned by Vancouver 
as a youth), was found to be able to interpret some of the signs made 
by the strangers, and after a little practice he entered into a continued 
conversation with them in rather a roundabout way, being himself 
blind. He informed me that it was the second or third time within his 
recollection that strangers like those then present had come to Kinnik 
from the northeast, but that in his youth he had frequently “talked 
with his hands” to their visitors from the west and east. He also told 
me that he had acquired this art from his father, who, as the old man 
expressed himself, had ‘seen every country, and spoken to all the tribes 
of the earth.” The conversation was carried on with the help of the old 
man’s sons, who described to their blind parent the gestures of the 
strangers, and were instructed in turn by him with what gestures to 
reply. 
This being an entirely new experience to me I at once proceeded to 
carefully make notes of the desultory talk, extending over several days. 
My object, primarily, was to make use of the signs for purposes of trade 
in the future. 
The notes thus obtained contain a narrative of the two strangers, in- 
terpreted to me at the time by Chatidoolts. I shall present each sign 
or sentence as I noted it at the time, with only casual reference to that 
incomplete and frequently erroneous interpretation. 
The two Indians wore the pointed hunting shirt of tanned moose-skin, 
ornamented with beads and fringes which is still common to the Kutchin 
tribes. They were not tattooed, but ears and noses were encumbered 
with pendants of dentalium and a small red glass bead. Their feet were 
