620 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1907. 



r 



The Afghans place the forefinger, front foremost, (the 

 remaining fingers heinjr closed, palm of the hand to the front), 

 transveisely between the Jaws, and bite it, opening the eyes at 

 the same time in an astonished gaze. 



Halt : Va ist. o^t [^-—(1) The right arm is held up hori- 



zontally as in the British Cavalry signal ; or (2) the right .hand, 

 open and 'extended, is held up, palm to the front, a little above 

 the level of the shoulder. 



Go OUT ; B'lrun li-rau^ J?^ cJlrfc?- 'i'te chin is slightly poked 

 forwards. 



He's Cracked : Dimagh-ash khusJc ast, »^«»l \S£^ tA'^*^* 



(1) The inght side of the nose or the right temple is tapped 

 with the tip of the forefinger. 



All Gas or he's Talking Rot. — The open right hand is 

 drawn down across the mouth from the wrist to the tips of the 

 fingers, being blown on at the same time. 



The key to spoken secret-languages is usually to be found in 

 certain letters or syllables inserted after each syllahle of the 

 word proper. Thus, in the zaban-i murghl or " the fowl's lan- 

 guage," the letter ra ( j ) is added to the first, and the letter 



giagn ( i ) to the second, syllable; kitah "book'' becomes hirti- 



ghah \ hi-dih ^'' gi\e^^^ birdi^a '^ hir-mi-ghnn~'bi-man\ nir gh an 

 nan. In the zdban-i zargari or *' goldsmiths' language '^ a ;sa ( j ) is 



inserted after each letter and vowelled as shewn in the following 

 examples : kitah becomes kizitazab ; qali becomes qizalizt ; ^nnshar- 

 raf becomes miizishazarrazaf. Slmztanaza bz-zu bi-zugtizash kaz 



shuzwnaza fazardazd biziyazaynzid khazanazamazSi — ^^ U^r^ J^ ^♦•^ 



to Aili ^Lj ]s^ji [^ 



In other secret Persian languages, which appear to have no 

 special distinguishing nances, the key lies, (1) In a lam-i mu$- 



haddad { J ) inserted after each letter and vowelled as shewn in 

 the examples : nan = nillan\ kitah — killa tillab. (2) In a single vav 

 ij) instead oi the la m-i muahaddnd'y thus kitob — kauki-tautQb\ 

 bi-dih = baiibi-daudih. (3) In changing the fir.st letter of every 



word into sin ( ^^ 



en 



dof 



the word. If the first letter of the word proper is stn it is 

 changed into jhn ( ^ ). (4) In making palindromes or even 



anagrams of every word ; as slitr^rlsh ; kitnb — bikat or tikab. To 

 an ordinary European this is extremely difficult. 



Similar systems are in vogue in English girl-scliools. The 

 key to one common English system lies in rig which is added 

 after every syllable. Thus '* I " is I-rig-I ; "speak" is spe-rig- 

 eak\ *' blossom " is hlo-rig-os — so-rig-om. 



The ladies of a Persian household often have a code-word of 

 their own. For instance, if the attendant be addressed as Banaf- 



.>^fea or "Violet, '* a common name of negresses, it might signi 

 "Bring coffee," whereas Bdji "Sister'* might signify "Bring 

 the Second-best sweets/' 



