30 MOON— NIGHT— INQUIRY. 



interpreted as the crescent moon. It appears that some tribes that retain 

 the full descriptive circle for the sun do form a distinguishing- crescent for 

 the moon, but with the thumb and forefinger, and for greater discrimination 

 precede it with the sign for night. An interesting variant of the sign for 

 sun is, however, reported as follows : The partly bent forefinger and thumb 

 of the right hand are brought together at their tips so as to represent a 

 circle; and with these digits next to the face, the hand is held up toward the 

 sky from one to two feet from the eye and in such a manner that the glance 

 may be directed through the opening. {Matthews.') The same authority 

 gives the sign for "moon" as that for "sun," except that the tips of the finger 

 and thumb, instead of being opposed, are approximated so as to represent a 

 crescent. This is not preceded by the sign for night, which, with some 

 occasional additions, is the crossing of both horizontally outspread palms, 

 right above left, in front of the body, the conception being covering, shade, 

 and consequent obscurity. With a slight differentiation, darkness is repre- 

 sented, and with another, forget, forgotten, that is, darkness in the memory. 



Inquiry, question. What 1 ? Which? When? 



This is generally denoted by the right hand held upward, palm upward, 

 and directed toward the person interrogated, and rotated two or three times 

 edgewise. When this motion is made, as among some tribes, with the thumb 

 near the face, it might be mistaken for the derisive, vulgar geshire called 

 "taking a sight," "donner un pied de nez," descending to our small boys 

 from antiquity. The separate motion of the fingers in the vulgar gesture 

 as used in our eastern cities is, however, more neaidy correlated with the 

 Indian sign for fool It may be noted that the Latin "sagax," from which 

 is derived "sagacity," was chiefly used to denote the keen scent of dogs, so 

 there is a relation established between the nasal organ and wisdom or its 

 absence, and that ''suspendere naso" was a classic phrase for hoaxing. The 

 Italian expressions " restare con un palmo di naso," " con tanto di naso," 

 &c, mentioned by the Canon De Jorio, refer to the same vulgar gesture in 

 which the face is supposed to be thrust forward sillily. The same rotation 

 upon the wrist, with the index and middle finger diverged over the heart, 

 among our Indians means specifically uncertainty, indecision, "more than one 

 heart for a purpose," and a variant of it appears in one of the signs for "J 



