52 THE GESTTTRE-LANGtrAGE. 



not kiss, but put noses together .'^ Tlie Andaman Islanders 

 salute by blowing into anotber's band witb a cooing murmur.^ 

 Cbarlevoix speaks of an Indian tribe on tbe Gulf of Mexico, 

 wbo blew into one another's ears ; ^ and Du Cbaillu describes 

 Mmself as having been blown upon in Africa.* Natural ex- 

 pressions of joy, such as clapping bands in Africa,^ and jump- 

 ing up and down in Tierra del Fuego,^ are made to do duty as 

 signs of friendship or greeting. 



There are a number of well-known gestures which are hard 

 to explain. Such are various signs of hatred and contempt, 

 such as lolling out the tongue, which is a universal sign, 

 though it is not clear why it should be so, biting the thumb, 

 making the sign of the stork's bill behind another's back {cico- 

 niam facere), and the sign known as "taking a sight," which 

 was as common at the time of Rabelais as it is now. 



In modern India, as in ancient Rome, only a part of the 

 signs we find described are such as can be set down at once to 

 their proper origin.''' One of the common gestures in India, 

 especially, has puzzled many Europeans. This is the way of 

 beckoning with the hand to call a person, which looks as 

 though it were the reverse of the movement which we use for 

 the purpose. I have heard, on native authority, that the appa- 

 rent difference consists in the palm being outwards instead ot 

 inwards, but a remark made about the natives of the south of 

 India by Mr. Roberts, who seems to have been an extremely 

 good observer, suggests another explanation : " The way in 

 which the people beckon for a person, is to lift up the right 

 hand to its extreme height, and then bring it down with a 

 sudden sweep to the ground."^ It is evident that to make a 

 sort of abbreviation of this movement, as by doing it fi'om the 

 wrist or elbow instead of from the shoulder, would be a natural 



1 Linnaeus, 'Tovir in Lapland ; ' London, 1811, vol. i. p. 315. 



2 Mouat, ' Andaman Islanders ; ' London, 1863, pp. 279-80. 



3 Cliarlevoix, vol. iii. p. 16. 



■• Du ChaiUu, ' Equatorial Africa ; ' London, 1861, pp. 393, 430. 



5 Burton, 'Central Africa,' vol. ii. p. 69. 



^ Wilkes, TJ. S. Exploring Esp. ; London, 1845, vol. i. p. 127. 



7 Plin. xi. 103. Eoberts, Oriental Illustr., pp. 87, 90, 285, 293, 461, 475, 491. 



8 Id. p. 396. 



