the palm vertical. If this
is supposed to be a stationary gesture it means, "_wait! stop!_" It
may, however, be the commencement of the last mentioned gesture, "_go
slow_."

[Illustration: Fig. 70.]

Both of these members of the council advise delay and express doubt of
the propriety of immediate action.

[Illustration: Fig. 71.]

The sitting warrior on the left of Athene presents his left hand flat
and carried well up. This position, supposed to be stationary, now
means to _ask, inquire_, and it may be that he inquires of the other
veteran what reasons he can produce for his temporizing policy. This
may be collated with the modern Neapolitan sign for _ask_, Fig. 70,
and the common Indian sign for "_tell me!_" Fig. 71. In connection
with this it is also interesting to compare the Australian sign for
interrogation, Fig. 72, and also the Comanche Indian sign for _give
me_, Fig. 301, page 480, _infra_. If, however, the artist had the
intention to represent the flat hand as in motion from below upward,
as is probable from the connection, the meaning is _much, greatly_.
He strongly disapproves the counsel of the opposite side. Our Indians
often express the idea of quantity, _much_, with the same conception
of comparative height, by an upward motion of the extended palm, but
with them the palm is held downward. The last figure to the right,
by the action of his whole body, shows his rejection of the proposed
delay, and his right hand gives the modern sign of combined surprise
and reproof.

[Illustration: Fig. 72.]

It is interesting to note the similarity of the merely emotional
gestures and attitudes of modern Italy with those of the classics. The
Pulcinella, Fig. 73, for instance, drawn from life in the streets of
Naples, has the same pliancy and _abandon_ of the limbs as appears in
the supposed foolish slaves of the Vatican Terence.

[Illustration: Fig. 73.]

In close connection with this branch of the study reference must be
made to the gestures exhibited in the works of Italian art only modern
in comparison with the high antiquity of their predecessors. A good
instance is in the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, painted toward
the close of the fifteenth century, and to the figure of Judas
as there portrayed. The gospel denounces him as a thief, which is
expressed in the painting by the hand extended and slightly curved;
imitative of the pilferer's act in clutching and drawing toward
him furtively the stolen o