dant, who supports and guides her embarrassed
friend with her right arm, brings her left hand into the sign of
_beautiful_--"See what a beauty she is!" This sign is made by the
thumb and index open and severally lightly touching each side of the
lower cheek, the other fingers open. It is given on a larger scale and
slightly varied in Fig. 84, evidently referring to a fat and rounded
visage. Almost the same sign is made by the Ojibwas of Lake Superior,
and a mere variant of it is made by the Dakotas--stroking the cheeks
alternately down to the tip of the chin with the palm or surface of
the extended fingers.

[Illustration: Fig. 85.]

The mother-in-law greets the bride by making the sign _mano in fica_
with her right hand. This sign, made with the hand clenched and
the point of the thumb between and projecting beyond the fore and
middle fingers, is more distinctly shown in Fig. 85. It has a very
ancient origin, being found on Greek antiques that have escaped the
destruction of time, more particularly in bronzes, and undoubtedly
refers to the _pudendum muliebre_. It is used offensively and
ironically, but also--which is doubtless the case in this instance--as
an invocation or prayer against evil, being more forcible than the
horn-shaped gesture before described. With this sign the Indian sign
for _female_, see Fig. 132, page 357, _infra_, may be compared.

The mother-in-law also places her left hand hollowed in front of her
abdomen, drawing with it her gown slightly forward, thereby making a
pantomimic representation of the state in which "women wish to be who
love their lords"; the idea being plainly an expressed hope that the
household will be blessed with a new generation.

[Illustration: Fig. 86.]

[Illustration: Fig. 87.]

Next to her is a hunchback, who is present as a familiar clown or
merrymaker, and dances and laughs to please the company, at the same
time snapping his fingers. Two other illustrations of this action, the
middle finger in one leaving and in the other having left the thumb
and passed to its base, are seen in Figs. 86, 87. This gesture by
itself has, like others mentioned, a great variety of significations,
but here means _joy_ and acclamation. It is frequently used among us
for subdued applause, less violent than clapping the two hands, but
still oftener to express negation with disdain, and also carelessness.
Both these uses of it are common in Naples, and appear in Etruscan
vases and Pomp