it, and
the average amount of their vocabulary. It is also of special interest
to learn the degree to which women become proficient, and the age
at which children commence its practice; also whether they receive
systematic instruction in it. The statement was made by Titchkematski
that the Kaiowa and Comanche women know nothing of sign language,
while the Cheyenne women are versed in it. As he is a Cheyenne,
however, he may not have a large circle of feminine acquaintances
beyond his own tribe, and his negative testimony is not valuable. Rev.
A.J. Holt, from large experience, asserts that the Kaiowa and Comanche
women do know and practice sign language, though the Cheyenne either
are more familiar with it than the Kaiowa or have a greater degree
of expertness. The Comanche women, he says, are the peers of any
sign-talkers. Colonel Dodge makes the broad assertion that even among
the Plains tribes only the old, or at least middle-aged, men use signs
properly, and that he has not seen any women or even young men who
were at all reliable in signs. He gives this statement to show the
difficulty in acquiring sign language; but it is questionable if the
fact is not simply the result of the rapid disuse of signs, in many
tribes, by which, cause women, not so frequently called upon to employ
them, and the younger generation, who have had no necessity to learn
them, do not become expert. Disappearing Mist, as before mentioned,
remembers a time when the Iroquois women and children used signs more
than the men.

It is also asserted, with some evidence, that the signs used by males
and females are different, though mutually understood, and some
minor points for observation may be indicated, such as whether the
commencement of counting upon the fingers is upon those of the right
or the left hand, and whether Indians take pains to look toward the
south when suggesting the course of the sun, which would give the
motion from left to right.

* * * * *

A suggestion has been made by a correspondent that some secret signs
of affiliation are known and used by the members of the several
associations, religious and totemic, which have been often noticed
among several Indian tribes. No evidence of this has been received,
but the point is worth attention.

_POSITIVE SIGNS RENDERED NEGATIVE._

In many cases positive signs to convey some particular idea are not
reported, and in their place a sign with the