ed in several different modes by the North American Indians.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.]

Fig. 107 signifies _hunger_, and is made by extending the thumb
and index under the open mouth and turning them horizontally and
vertically several times. The idea is emptiness and desire to be
filled. It is also expressed by beating the ribs with the flat hands,
to show that the sides meet or are weak for the want of something
between them.

[Illustration: Fig. 107.]

Fig. 108 is made in mocking and ridicule. The open and oscillating
hand touches the point of the nose with that of the thumb. It has the
particular sense of stigmatizing the person addressed or in question
as a dupe. A credulous person is generally imagined with a gaping
mouth and staring eyes, and as thrusting forward his face, with
pendant chin, so that the nose is well advanced and therefore most
prominent in the profile. A dupe is therefore called _naso lungo_
or long-nose, and with Italian writers "_restare con un palmo di
naso_"--to be left with a palm's length of nose--means to have met
with loss, injury, or disappointment.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.]

The thumb stroking the forehead from one side to the other, Fig. 109,
is a natural sign of _fatigue_, and of the physical toil that produces
fatigue. The wiping off of perspiration is obviously indicated. This
gesture is often used ironically.

[Illustration: Fig. 109.]

As a _dupe_ was shown above, now the _duper_ is signified, by Fig.
110. The gesture is to place the fingers between the cravat and the
neck and rub the latter with the back of the hand. The idea is that
the deceit is put within the cravat, taken in and down, similar to our
phrase to "swallow" a false and deceitful story, and a "cram" is also
an English slang word for an incredible lie. The conception of the
slang term is nearly related to that of the Neapolitan sign, viz., the
artificial enlargement of the oesophagus of the person victimized or
on whom imposition is attempted to be practiced, which is necessary to
take it down.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.]

Fig. 111 shows the ends of the index and thumb stroking the two sides
of the nose from base to point. This means _astute, attentive, ready_.
Sharpness of the nasal organ is popularly associated with subtlety
and finesse. The old Romans by _homo emunctae naris_ meant an acute
man attentive to his interests. The sign is often used in a bad sense,
then signifying _too_ sharp to be trus