Observations on the Language of Signs. 355 
veyed, the hand does not stop at the mouth, but is contin- 
ued above it.” 
“ Night, or Sleeping. Ele “ue with the eyes ‘closed, 
is laterally inclined fora moment upon the hand. As many 
times as this is repeated, so many nights are indicated ; 
very frequently the sign of the sun is traced over the heav- 
ens from east to west, to indicate the lapse of a sy and 
precedes the motion.” 
In the work from uiiek the preceding signs are taken, 
no other divisions of time are explained, except different 
periods of day, by the passage of the sun through an arch 
tn the heavens under the word sun, in which the fore- -finger 
and thumb are brought together at the tip, so as to form a 
circle, and held up towards the sun’s track. 
In the school for the Deaf and Dumb, we distinguish the 
periods of a year, the seasons, a month, a week, a day, a 
night, and parts ofa day or night, as dawn, sun-rise, morn- 
ing, noon, evening, midnight. A year may be represented 
by a great circle in the air, indicating a revolution of the 
earth about the sun; but this sign is rather philosophical 
than natural. It may more naturally be pooueoel ct by 
tracing with the finger the course of the sun’s declination 
from the summer to the winter ‘solstice, and back again. 
But that which is easiest understood, and the most natural, 
is by the sign for one hot and one cold season. 
Spring is represented by the springing up of the grass, 
and the expanding of blossoms; summer by the heat; au- 
tumn by the ripening of fruits; and winter by the cold. 
A week is represented by seven days; or the hands pla-- 
ced together before the breast in the attitude of prayer, in- 
dicating the return of the Sabbath. 
To indicate a day, the left arm is bent, and held before 
the body to represent the horizon, and a semi-circle is tra- 
ced above it, beginning at thle elbow and ending at the hand. 
An artificial horizon being formed, it is easy to designate 
the parts of the day by showing where the sun would be at 
such periods, as-dawn, sun-rise, morning, noon, afternoon, ° 
sun-set, evening, night, midnight. 
The sign for a month is one moon, and the Indians use 
the correct natural sign. 
