36 HIDE— PEACE— STONE— PRISONER. 



transversely before the heart and rotating the wrist several times, indicat- 

 ing disturbance of the organ, which our aborigines, like modern Europeans, 

 poetically regard as the seat of the affections and emotions, not selecting 

 the liver or stomach as other peoples have done with greater physiological 

 reason. 



To hide, conceal, is graphically portrayed by placing the right hand 

 inside the clothing of the left breast, or covering the right hand, fingers 

 hooked, by the left, which is flat, palm downward, and held near the body. 

 The same gestures mean "secret." 



Peace, or friendship, is sometimes shown by placing the tips of the two 

 first fingers of the right hand against the mouth and elevated upward and 

 outward to mimic the expulsion of smoke — "we two smoke together." 

 (TitchJcemdtsM.) It is also often rendered by the joined right and left 

 ] Kinds, the fingers being sometimes interlocked, but others simply hook 

 the two forefingers together. Our deaf-mutes interlock the forefingers for 

 "friendship," clasp the hands, right uppermost, for " marriage," and make 

 the last sign, repeated with the left hand uppermost, for "peace." The 

 idea of union or linking is obvious. It is, however, noticeable that while 

 this ceremonial gesture is common and ancient, the practice of shaking 

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

 course with whites, was never used by them between each other, and is 

 clearly a foreign importation. Their fancy for affectionate greeting was in 

 giving a pleasant bodily sensation by rubbing each other's breasts, arms, 

 and stomachs. The senseless and inconvenient custom of shaking hands is, 

 indeed, by no means general throughout the world, and in the extent to 

 which it prevails in the United States is a matter of national opprobrium. 



The profession of peace, coupled with invitation, is often made from a 

 distance by the acted spreading of a real or imaginary robe or blanket — 

 " come and sit down." 



The sign for stone has an archaeological significance — the right fist 

 being struck repeatedly upon the left palm, as would be instinctive when a 

 stone was the only hammer. 



Prisoner is a graphic picture. The forefinger and thumb of the left 

 hand are held in the form of a semicircle opening toward and near the 



