ords to
which the higher languages owe their copiousness. It is observed in
the signs invented by Indians for each new product of civilization
brought to their notice.

An interesting instance is in the sign for _steamboat_, made at the
request of the writer by White Man (who, however, did not like that
sobriquet and announced his intention to change his name to Lean
Bear), an Apache, in June, 1880, who had a few days before seen a
steamboat for the first time. After thinking a moment he gave an
original sign, described as follows:

Make the sign for _water_, by placing the flat right hand before the
face, pointing upward and forward, the back forward, with the wrist as
high as the nose; then draw it down and inward toward the chin; then
with both hands indicate the outlines of a horizontal oval figure
from before the body back to near the chest (being the outline of the
deck); then place both flat hands, pointing forward, thumbs
higher than the outer edges, and push them forward to arms'-length
(illustrating the powerful forward motion of the vessel).

An original sign for _telegraph_ is given in NATCI'S NARRATIVE,
_infra_.

An Indian skilled in signs, as also a deaf-mute, at the sight of a
new object, or at the first experience of some new feeling or mental
relation, will devise some mode of expressing it in pantomimic gesture
or by a combination of previously understood signs, which will be
intelligible to others, similarly skilled, provided that they have
seen the same objects or have felt the same emotions. But if a number
of such Indians or deaf-mutes were to see an object--for instance an
elephant--for the first time, each would perhaps hit upon a different
sign, in accordance with the characteristic appearance most striking
to him. That animal's trunk is generally the most attractive lineament
to deaf-mutes, who make a sign by pointing to the nose and moving the
arm as the trunk is moved. Others regard the long tusks as the most
significant feature, while others are struck by the large head and
small eyes. This diversity of conception brings to mind the poem of
"The Blind Men and the Elephant," which with true philosophy in an
amusing guise explains how the sense of touch led the "six men of
Indostan" severally to liken the animal to a wall, spear, snake,
tree, fan, and rope. A consideration of invented or original signs,
as showing the operation of the mind of an Indian or other uncivilized
gesturer, has