INQUIRY— FOOL— NO. 3 1 



don't know." The special inquiry " Do you know?" is reported as follows : 

 Shake the right hand in front of the face, a little to the right, the whole arm 

 elevated so as to throw the hand even with the face and the forearm stand- 

 ing almost perpendicular ; principal motion witli hand, slight motion of 

 forearm, palm outward. (Deffenbaugh.) 



The Indian sign for "inquiry" is far superior to that of the French 

 deaf-mutes, which is the part of the French shrug with the hunched shoulders 

 omitted. 



A sign for a special form of inquiry as to the tribe to which the person 

 addressed belongs is to pass the right hand from left to right across the face, 

 which is answered by the appropriate tribal sign. (Powell.) 



Instead of a direct question the Utes in sign-conversation use a negative 

 form, e. g., to ask "Where is your mother?" would be rendered "Mother — 

 your — I — see — not." 



Fool, foolish. The prevailing gesture is a finger pointed to the forehead 

 and rotated circularly — "rattle-brained." The only reported variance is 

 where the sign for "man" is followed by shaking the fingers held down- 

 ward, without reference to the head — the idea of looseness simply. French 

 deaf-mutes shake the hands above the head after touching it with the index. 

 No, negative. The right hand — though in the beginning of the sign 

 held in various positions — is generally either waved before the face (which 

 is the sign of our deaf-mutes for emphatic negative), as if refusing to accept 

 the idea or statement presented, or pushed sidewise to the right from either 

 the breast or face, as if dismissing it or setting it aside One of the signs 

 given for the Pah- Utes by Natshes of oscillating the index before the face 

 from right to left is substantially the same as one reported from Naples by De 

 Jorio. This may be compared with our shaking of the head in denial ; but 

 that gesture is not so universal in the Old World as is popularly supposed, 

 for the ancient Greeks, followed by the modern Turks and rustic Italians, 

 threw the head back, instead of shaking it, for No. A sign differing from 

 all the above is by making a quick motion of the open hand from the moulh 

 forward, palm toward mouth. (Deffenbaugh.) The Egyptian negative linear 

 hieroglyph is clearly the gesture of both hands, palms down, waved apart 

 horizontally and apparently at the level of the elbow, between which 



