508 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
others came and killed many Mescaleros. The cavalry and infantry 
brought us (the Mescaleros) to this camp as prisoners. 
The San Carlos scouts were well supplied with ammunition and guns, 
and shot many Warm Spring Indians and Mesealeros. 
The San Carlos scouts are brave men. 
NA-WA-GI-JI@S STORY. 
The following is contributed by Mr. FRANCIS JACKER: 
This narrative was related to me by John Na-wa-gi-jig (literally “noon- 
day sky”), an aged Ojibwa, with whom I have been intimately connected 
for along period of years. He delivered his story, referring to one of 
the many incidents in his perilous life, orally, but with pantomimes so 
graphic and vivid that it may be presented truly as a specimen of gest- 
ure language. Indeed, to any one familiar with Indian mimicry, the 
story might have been intelligible without the expedient of verbal lan- 
guage, while the oral exposition, incoherent as it was, could hardly be 
styled anything better than the subordinate part of the delivery. I 
have endeavored to reproduce these gestures in their original connec- 
tions from memory, omitting the verbal accompaniment as far as practi- 
cable. In order to facilitate a clear understanding it is stated that the 
gesturer was in a sitting posture before a camp fire by the lake shore, 
and facing the locality where the event referred to had actually occurred, 
viz, a portion of Keweenaw Bay, Lake Superior, in the neighborhood of 
Portage Entry, as seen by the annexed diagram, Fig. 319. The time 
of the relation (latter part of April) also coincided with the actual time. 
In speaking of “arm,” “hand,” “ finger,” &e., the “right” is understood 
if not otherwise specified. Finger” stands for “ forefinger.” 
(1) With the exclamation “me-wi-ja” (a long time ago), uttered in a 
slow and peculiarly emphatic manner, he elevated the arm above and 
toward the right at the head, accompanying the motion with an upward 
wave of the hand and held it thus suspended a moment—a long time ago. 
(This gesture resembles sign for time, a long, of which it seems to be an 
abbreviation, and it is not sufficiently clear without the accompanying 
exclamation.) Withdrawing it slowly, he placed the hand back upon 
his knee. 
2) He then brought up the left hand toward the temple and tapped 
his hair, which was gray, with the finger—hair gray. 
(3) From thence he carried it down upon the thigh, placing the ex- 
tended finger perpendicularly upon a fold of his trousers, which the 
thumb and finger of the right held grasped in such a manner as to ad- 
vantageously present the smooth black surface of the cloth—of that color, 
a. €., black. 
(4) Next, with a powerful strain of the muscles, he slowly stretched 
