age known in common by some
one or more of the Indians and by some one of the observers. When an
interpreter was employed, he translated the words used by an Indian
in his oral paraphrase of the signs, and was not relied upon to
explain the signs according to his own ideas. Such translations
and a description of minute and rapidly-executed signs, dictated
at the moment of their exhibition, were sometimes taken down by
a phonographer, that there might be no lapse of memory in any
particular, and in many cases the signs were made in successive
motions before the camera, and prints secured as certain evidence
of their accuracy. Not only were more than one hundred Indians thus
examined individually, at leisure, but, on occasions, several parties
of different tribes, who had never before met each other, and could
not communicate by speech, were examined at the same time, both by
inquiry of individuals whose answers were consulted upon by all the
Indians present, and also by inducing several of the Indians to engage
in talk and story-telling in signs between themselves. Thus it was
possible to notice the difference in the signs made for the same
objects and the degree of mutual comprehension notwithstanding such
differences. Similar studies were made by taking Indians to the
National Deaf Mute College and bringing them in contact with the
pupils.

By far the greater part of the actual work of the observation and
record of the signs obtained at Washington has been ably performed by
Dr. W.J. HOFFMAN, the assistant of the present writer. When the latter
has made personal observations the former has always been present,
taking the necessary notes and sketches and superintending the
photographing. To him, therefore, belongs the credit for all those
references in the following "LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND COLLABORATORS,"
in which it is stated that the signs were obtained at Washington from
Indian delegations. Dr. HOFFMAN acquired in the West, through his
service as acting assistant surgeon, United States Army, at a large
reservation, the indispensable advantage of becoming acquainted with
the Indian character so as to conduct skillfully such researches as
that in question, and in addition has the eye and pencil of an artist,
so that he seizes readily, describes with physiological accuracy,
and reproduces in action and in permanent illustration all shades
of gesture exhibited. Nearly all of the pictorial illustrations in
this paper ar