utward and
slightly downward--_no, not_.

ANALYSIS.

Ha-u | na-wa'-[.h]o[n] | tka | wa[n]-mla'-ke | ['s]ni
(1) | (2) | | (3) | (4)
Yes, | I heard | (but) | I saw it. | not.

_DIALOGUE BETWEEN ALASKAN INDIANS._

The following introductory notes are furnished by MR. IVAN PETROFF,
who contributes the Dialogue:

It has been repeatedly stated that among the natives of Alaska no
trace of gesture or sign language can be found. The universal spread
of the Russian language in former times as a medium of trade and
general intercourse has certainly prevented observations of this
primitive linguistic feature in all the vast regions visited by the
Russians. On the other hand, the homogeneous elements of the Innuit
tongue, spoken along the whole seacoast from the Arctic to the Alaskan
Peninsula, and the Island of Kadiak, has, to a great extent, abolished
all causes for the employment of sign language between tribes in their
mutual intercourse. Basing their opinions upon what they saw while
touching upon the coast here and there, even the acknowledged
authorities on Alaskan matters have declared that sign language did
not and could not exist in all that country. Without entering into
any lengthened dispute upon this question, I venture to present in the
subjoined pages a succinct account of at least one instance where I
saw natives of different tribes converse with each other only by means
of signs and gestures within the boundaries of Alaska.

In the month of September, 1866, there arrived on the Lower Kinnik
River, a stream emptying its waters into Cook's Inlet, two Indians
from a distant region, who did not speak the Kenaitze language. The
people of the settlement at which the strangers made their first
appearance were equally at a loss to understand the visitors. At last
a chief of great age, bearing the name of Chatidoolts (mentioned by
Vancouver as a youth), was found to be able to interpret some of the
signs made by the strangers, and after a little practice he entered
into a continued conversation with them in rather a roundabout way,
being himself blind. He informed me that it was the second or third
time within his recollection that strangers like those then present
had come to Kinnik from the northeast, but that in his youth he had
frequently "talked with his hands" to their visitors from the west and
east. He also told me that he had acquired this art from