65 



Caresses, by a man ; by a woman, by a motion repi-esentino- jjaitnii- 

 tion. {Macgoican.) 



Pass the hand downward from the abdomen, between tlie legs, indi- 

 cating that it came that way. (Dodge.) 



Eight hand fingers somewhat curved and separated and held forward 

 and higher than the wrist, ]y,ihn down, moved in a short arch from side 

 to side at the height representing the child indicated, and as if rubbing 

 the top of the head. (Apache I.) 



Small. 



Place the right hand a couple of feet from the ground, or lower, back 

 forward and fingers i)ointing upward, then close both hands and place 

 them in front of the navel, backs outward, the right fist about three 

 inches above the left, and while in this position extend and flex the 

 hands at the wrist once or twice. (Dakota IV.) "In arm and small." 



One able to walk. 



Right hand extended in front of the body on level with the breast, 

 back of hand out, fingers joined and pointing obliquely toward the left, 

 turn the hand over with palm looking downward (W), and carry the 

 hand downward as though laying its palm on the top of a child's head, 

 the distance of the hand from the ground indicating the height and ap- 

 proximately the age of the child. (Dakota I.) "Indicating a child's 

 age by its height." 



Deaf-mute natural sign for child, notahaby in arms.—Vwi the hand 

 when natm'ally stretched out down to the knee. (Larson.) 



The Cistercian monks, vowed to silence, and the Egyptian hierogly- 

 phers, notably in the designation of Horns, their dawn-god, used the 

 finger in or on the lips for "child." It has been conjectured in the last 

 instance that the gesture imi)lied, not the mode of taking nourishment, 

 but inability to speak — in-funs. This conjecture, however, was only 

 made to explain the blunder of the Greeks, who saw in the hand placed 

 connected with the mouth in the hieroglyiJh of Horns (the) son, " Hor- 

 (p)-chrot," the gesture familiar to themselves of a finger on the lips to 

 express "silence," and so mistaking both the name and the characteri- 

 zation, invented the God of Silence, Harpokrates. A careful examina- 

 tion of all the linear hieroglyphs given by Champollion (Dictionnaire 

 iSgyptien), shows that the finger or hand to the month of an adult 

 (whose posture is always distinct from that of a child) is always in con- 

 nection with the positive ideas of voice, mouth, speech, writing, eating, 

 drinking, Szc, and never with the negative idea of silence. The special 

 character for "child" always has the above-mentioned part of the sign 

 with reference to nourishment from the breast. 



