SIGNALS. 



The collaborators iu the present work luive not generally responded to 

 the request to coniiuunieate materhil under this head. It is, however, 

 hoped that by now printing' some extracts from published works and 

 the few unpublished statements recently procured, the attention of ob- 

 servers will be directed to the further prosecution of research in this 

 direction. 



Theterm "signal" is here used in distinction from thesigns noted in the 

 Vocabulary, as being some action or manifestation intended to be 

 seen at a distance, and not allowing of the minuteness or detail possible 

 in close converse. Signals may be executed, first, exclusively by bodily 

 action; secon<l, by action of the ])erson in connection with objects, such 

 as a blanket, or a lance, or in the direction imparted to a horse; third, 

 by various devices, such as smoke or fire-arrows, when the person of the 

 sigualist is not visible. They are almost entirely conventional, and 

 while their study has not the same kind of importaace as that of gest- 

 ure-signs, it possesses some peculiar interest. 



SIGNALS EXECUTED BY BODILY ACTION. 



Some of these will probably be found to be identical, or nearly so, with 

 the gesture-signs used by the same people. 



Alarm. See notes on Cheyenne and Arapaho signals. 



Angei*. 



Close the hand, place it against the foreJiead, and turn it back and 

 forth while in that position. {Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border, 

 by Col. R. B. Marcy, U. S. A., p. .34, New York, 1860.) 



Come here. 



The right hand is to be advanced about eighteen inches at the height 

 of the navel, horizontal, relaxed, palui downward, thumb iu the palm ; 

 then draw it near the side and at the same time drop the hand to bring 

 the palm backward. The farther away the person called is, the higher 

 the hand is raised. If very far off, the hand is raised high up over the 

 head and then swung forward and downward, then backward and down- 

 ward to the side. {Dakota IV.) 



Dang'ei*. (There is something dangerous in that place.) 



Right-hand iudex-flnger and thumb forming a curve, the other fingers 



