12 



but in a few cases where tlie language was so curt as uot to give a clear idea, was col- 

 lated with the French edition of the succeeding year, which, from some internal evi- 

 dence, appears to have been published with the assistance or supervision of the author. 

 Many of the descriptions are, however, so brief and indetinite in both their German and 

 French forms that they necessarily remain so in the i)reseut translation. The princely 

 explorer, with the keen discrimination shown in all his work, doubtless observed what 

 has escaped many recent reporters of aboriginal signs, that the latter depend much 

 moi'e upon motion than mere position — and are generally lai-ge and free — seldom 

 minute. His object was to express the general effect of the motion rather than to 

 describe it so as to allow of its accurate reproduction by a reader who had never seen 

 it. For the latter purpose, now very desirable, a more elaborate description would 

 have been necessary, and even that would not in all cases have been sufficient without 

 pictorial illustration. 



On account of the manifest importance of determining the prevalence and persist- 

 ence of the signs as observed half a century ago, an exception is made to the general 

 arrangement hereafter mentioned by introducing after the Wied signs, remarks of col- 

 laborators who have made special comparisons, aiul adding to the latter the res])ective 

 names of those collaborators — as [Mattliews)-(Boteler). It is hoped that the work of 

 these gentlemen will be imitated not only regarding the Wk-d signs but many others. 



-l. That of Cai)t. R. F. Burton, of signs which, it would be inferred, were collected 

 in 1860-'01 from the tribes met or learned of by him on the overland stage route, 

 including Southern Dakotas, Utes, Shoshoni, Arapahos, (Jrows, Pani, and Apaches. 

 This is contained in " The City of the Saints," New York, 1802. 



Information is recently received to the effect that this collection was not made by 

 the distinguished English explorer from his iiersonal observation, but was obtained by 

 him from one man, a Morman bishop, who, it is feared, gave his own ideas of the usage 

 of signs rather than their simple description. 



5. A list read by Dr. \). G. MacCtOWAN, at a meeting of the American Ethnological 

 Society, Jan. 2.3, ISOd, and published in the "Historical Magazine," vol. x, 1806, p. 86-87, 

 purporting to be the signs of the Caddos, Wichitas, and Conumches. 



6. A comnninication from Brevet Col. Eichakd I. Dodge, Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Twenty-third Infantry, United States Army, author of "The Plains of the Great 

 West and their Inhabitants," tS:c., relating to his large experience with the Indians of 

 the prairies, (.'olonel Dodge, now on active duty, has been requested to assign his 

 general descriptions to the tribe or tribes in which the signs were actually observed by 

 him, and should such designation arrive, while the Vocabulary is passing through the 

 press, they will be classified accordingly. He is also preparing a larger contribution. 



N O T ICE. 



In the six collections above mentioned the generality of the statements as to 

 locality of the observation and use of the signs, rendered it impossible to arrange 

 them in the manner exidained in the " Introductory Letter" hereto. They will therefore 

 be referred to in the Vocabulary by the names of the authors responsible for them. 

 •Those which now follow are arranged ab^habetically by tribes, under headings of Lin- 

 guistic Families, which are also given below in alphabetical order. Example: The 

 first authority is under the heading Algonkian, and, concerning only the Ai-apaJio 

 tribe, is referred to as {Arapalio I), Lieutenant Lemly being the personal authority. 



