h hands opened, relaxed, horizontal, and
palms backward, place the ends of the right fingers behind and against
the ends of the left; then separate them, and moving them backward,
each through a semicircle, bring their bases together. The latter sign
is also that of the Arapahos for _house_. An inclosure. (_Dakota_ IV.)
The first part of this sign is that for _stone_.
---- LODGE, TIPI, WIGWAM.
The two hands are reared together in the form of the roof of a house,
the ends of the fingers upward. (_Long_.)
Place the opened thumb and forefinger of each hand opposite each
other, as if to make a circle, but leaving between them a small
interval; afterward move them from above downward simultaneously
(which is the sign for _village_); then elevate the finger to indicate
the number--one. (_Wied_.) Probably he refers to an earthen lodge. I
think that the sign I have given you is nearly the same with all the
Upper Missouri Indians. (_Matthews_.)
Place the fingers of both hands ridge-fashion before the breast.
(_Burton_.)
Indicate outlines (an inverted V, thus ^), with the forefingers
touching or crossed at the tips, the other fingers closed. (_Creel_;
_Arapaho_ I.)
Both hands open, fingers upward, tips touching, brought downward,
and at same time separated to describe outline of a cone, suddenly
stopped. (_Cheyenne_ II.)
Both hands approximated, held forward horizontally, fingers joined
and slightly arched, backs upward, withdraw them in a sideward and
downward direction, each hand moving to its corresponding side, thus
combinedly describing a hemisphere. Carry up the right and, with its
index pointing downward indicate a spiral line rising upward from
the center of the previously formed arch. (_Ojibwa_ V.) "From the
dome-shaped form of the wigwam, and the smoke rising from the opening
in the roof."
Both hands flat and extended, placing the tips of the fingers of one
against those of the other, leaving the palms or wrists about four
inches apart. (_Absaroka_ I; _Wyandot_ I; _Shoshoni and Banak_ I.)
"From its exterior outline."
Both hands carried to the front of the breast and placed V-shaped,
inverted, thus ^, with the palms, looking toward each other, edge of
fingers outward, thumbs inward. (_Dakota_ I.) "From the outline of the
tipi."
With the hands nearly upright, palms inward, cross the ends of the
extended forefingers, the right one either in front or behind the
left, or lay the ends together; restin
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