hy approach to game, and from the sole
form of their military tactics--to surprise an enemy. In the still
expanse of virgin forests, and especially in the boundless solitudes
of the great plains, a slight sound can be heard over a large area,
that of the human voice being from its rarity the most startling,
so that it is now, as it probably has been for centuries, a common
precaution for members of a hunting or war party not to speak together
when on such expeditions, communicating exclusively by signs. The
acquired habit also exhibits itself not only in formal oratory and
in impassioned or emphatic conversation, but also as a picturesque
accompaniment to ordinary social talk. Hon. LEWIS H. MORGAN mentions
in a letter to this writer that he found a silent but happy family
composed of an Atsina (commonly called Gros Ventre of the Prairie)
woman, who had been married two years to a Frenchman, during which
time they had neither of them attempted to learn each other's
language; but the husband having taken kindly to the language of
signs, they conversed together by that means with great contentment.
It is also often resorted to in mere laziness, one gesture saving
many words. The gracefulness, ingenuity, and apparent spontaneity of
the greater part of the signs can never be realized until actually
witnessed, and their beauty is much heightened by the free play to
which the arms of these people are accustomed, and the small and
well-shaped hands for which they are remarkable. Among them can seldom
be noticed in literal fact--

The graceless action of a heavy hand--

which the Bastard metaphorically condemns in King John.

The conditions upon which the survival of sign language among
the Indians has depended is well shown by those attending its
discontinuance among certain tribes.

Many instances are known of the discontinuance of gesture speech with
no development in the native language of the gesturers, but from the
invention for intercommunication of one used in common. The Kalapuyas
of Southern Oregon until recently used a sign language, but have
gradually adopted for foreign intercourse the composite tongue,
commonly called the Tsinuk or Chinook jargon, which probably arose for
trade purposes on the Columbia River before the advent of Europeans,
founded on the Tsinuk, Tsihali, Nutka, &c., but now enriched by
English and French terms, and have nearly forgotten their old signs.
The prevalence of this mongrel speech,