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Read Ebook: Sign Talk A Universal Signal Code Without Apparatus for Use in the Army the Navy Camping Hunting and Daily Life by Seton Ernest Thompson Scott Hugh Lenox Other Powers Lillian Delger Translator
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Ebook has 403 lines and 57753 words, and 9 pages
Latin races are proverbially hand-talkers, so that the Sign Language is more widely used among them than with Anglo-Saxons.
But the American Plains Indian is undoubtedly the best sign-talker the world knows to-day. There are, or were, some thirty different tribes with a peculiar speech of their own, and each of these communicated with the others by use of the simple and convenient sign-talk of the plains. It is, or was, the language of Western trade and diplomacy as far back as the records go. Every traveller who visited the Buffalo Plains had need to study and practise this Western Volapuk, and all attest its simplicity, its picturesqueness, its grace, and its practical utility.
Many of the best observers among these have left us long lists of signs in use, Alexander Henry in his gossipy journal among the Mandans of the Missouri in 1806 tells us of the surprise and interest he felt in watching two Indian chiefs of different tribes who conversed freely for hours on all subjects of common interest, conveying their ideas accurately by nothing but simple gestures.
The European races are much less gifted as sign-talkers. But we all have a measure of it that is a surprise to most persons when first confronted with the facts. Our school children especially make daily use of the ancient signals.
AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN
One very shy little girl--so shy that she dared not speak--furnished a good illustration:
"Do you use the Sign Language in your school?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"Do you learn any language but English?"
She nodded.
"What is the use of learning any other than English?"
She raised her right shoulder in the faintest possible shrug and at the same time turned her right palm slightly up.
"Now," was my reply, "don't you see you have answered all my three questions in signs which you said you did not use?"
Following the subject, I said: "What does this mean?" and held up my right hand with the first and second fingers crossed.
"Pax," she whispered; and then, after further trials, I learned that at least thirty signs were in daily use in that local school.
This was in England. In America the sign "Pax," or "King's cross," is called "King's X," "Fines" or "Fins" or "Fends," "Bars up" or "Truce," meaning always, "I claim immunity."
This is a very ancient sign and seems to refer to the right of sanctuary. The name "King's cross," used occasionally in England, means probably the sanctuary in the King's palace.
In general I found about 150 gesture signals in established use among American school children, namely:
Me .
You .
Yes .
No .
Good .
Bad .
Go .
Come .
Hurry .
Come for a moment .
Stop .
Gently .
Good-bye .
Up .
High .
Deep .
Heaven .
Down .
Forward .
Backward .
Across .
Over or Above .
Under .
Hush .
Listen .
Look .
Look there .
Touch .
Taste .
Smell .
Friendship .
Warning .
Threatening .
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