Sign Language of the North American Indians (Illustrated Edition). Garrick Mallery

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      The deaf-mutes understood all but the sign for wheel, which they make as a large circle, with one hand.

      Another example: A deaf-mute pretended to hunt something; found birds, took his bow and arrows and killed several.

      This was fully understood.

      A narrative given by Alejandro was also understood by the deaf-mutes, to the effect that he made search for deer, shot one with a gun, killed and skinned it, and packed it up.

      It will be observed that many of the above signs admitted of and were expressed by pantomime, yet that was not the case with all that were made. President Gallaudet made also some remarks in gesture which were understood by the Indians, yet were not strictly pantomimic.

      The opinion of all present at the test was that two intelligent mimes would seldom fail of mutual understanding, their attention being exclusively directed to the expression of thoughts by the means of comprehension and reply equally possessed by both, without the mental confusion of conventional sounds only intelligible to one.

      A large collection has been made of natural deaf-mute signs, and also of those more conventional, which have been collated with those of the several tribes of Indians. Many of them show marked similarity, not only in principle but often in detail.

      The result of the studies so far as prosecuted is that what is called the sign language of Indians is not, properly speaking, one language, but that it and the gesture systems of deaf-mutes and of all peoples constitute together one language—the gesture speech of mankind—of which each system is a dialect.