227 



Salutation. Haiid-shakiug'. 



" He shook hands" — with the party greeted — "and then pressed his 

 owiio|)en bosom." A Kansas sign. (Indian sketches by John T. Irving, 

 Philadelpliia, 1835, vol. I, p. 61.) 



It is noticeable that while the ceremonial gesture of union or linking 

 hands is common and ancient in token of peace, the practice of shaking 

 hands on meeting, now the annoying etiquette of the Indians in their 

 intercourse with whites, was not used by them between each othei-, and 

 is clearly a foreign importation. Their fancy fir affectionate greeting 

 was in giving a i)leasant bodily sensation by rubbing each other's breasts, 

 arms, and stomachs. The senseless and inconvenient custom of shak- 

 ing hands is, indeed, by no means general throughout the world, and in 

 the extent to which it i)revails in the United States is a subject of ridi- 

 cule by foreigners. The Chinese, with a higher conception of ])olite- 

 ness, shake their own hands. The account of a recent observer of the 

 meeting of two polite Celestials is: "Each jthiced the fingers of one hand 

 over the fist of the other, so that the thumbs met, and then standing a 

 fe V feet apart raised his hands gently up and down in front of his 

 breast. For special courtesy, after the foregoing gesture, they place the 

 hand which had been the actor in it on the stomach of its owner, not on 

 that jiart of the interlocutor, the whole i)roceeding being subjective, but 

 perhaps a relic of objective perforuiance." 



8anie; similar to what ik iiieiitioned before. (Compare 

 Companion.) 



Place the two forefingers parallel to each other, and push them for- 

 ward a little. [Dunhnr.) 



The two forefingers opened forward, laid side by side as in sign for 

 Companion, and gently pu.shed forward. {Cheyenne I.) 



Same sign as for Companion. [I><ih>ta I.) 



The forefingers of both hands extended, joined, backs upward, are 

 carried outward from the breast on tiie same level for a foot. {Dakota 

 I.) " No difference — both the same." 



The hands are placed in the same po itions as in Ahead and 

 Beiiind, except that the forefingers are ](lacod exactly side by side. 

 If it is to be shown that two things are exactly alike or constantly alike 

 or beside one another, the hands sire moved forward together for a short 

 distance. {Mandan and HUlafsa I.) 



Extend forefinger and middle finger of right hand, pointing ui)ward, 

 thumb crossed over the other fingers, which are closed; move hand 

 downward and forward. {Omaha I.) 



