In the printed but unpublished _Collection_ before mentioned, page
396, nearly three hundred quarto pages are devoted to descriptions of
signs arranged in alphabetic order. A few of these are now presented
to show the method adopted. They have been selected either as having
connection with the foregoing discussion of the subject or because for
some of them pictorial illustrations had already been prepared. There
is propriety in giving all the signs under some of the title words
when descriptions of only one or two of those signs have been used in
the foregoing remarks. This prevents an erroneous inference that
the signs so mentioned are the only or the common or the generally
prevailing signs for the idea conveyed. This course has involved some
slight repetition both of descriptions and of illustrations, as it
seemed desirable that they should appear to the eye in the several
connections indicated. The extracts are rendered less interesting and
instructive by the necessity for omitting cross-references which would
show contrasts and similarities for comparison, but would require a
much larger part of the collected material to be now printed than is
consistent with the present plan. Instead of occupying in this manner
the remaining space allotted to this paper, it was decided to present,
as of more general interest, the descriptions of TRIBAL SIGNS, PROPER
NAMES, PHRASES, DIALOGUES, NARRATIVES, DISCOURSES, and SIGNALS, which
follow the EXTRACTS.
It will be observed that in the following extracts there has been an
attempt to supply the conceptions or origin of the several signs. When
the supposed conception, obtained through collaborators, is printed
before the authority given as reference, it is understood to have been
gathered from an Indian as being his own conception, and is therefore
of special value. When printed after the authority and within
quotation marks it is in the words of the collaborator as offered by
himself. When printed after the authority and without quotation marks
it is suggested by this writer.
The letters of the alphabet within parentheses, used in some of the
descriptions, refer to the corresponding figures in TYPES OF HAND
POSITIONS at the end of this paper. When such letters are followed
by Arabic numerals it is meant that there is some deviation, which is
described in the text, from that type of hand position corresponding
with the letter which is still used as the basis of description.
Example: In the first description from (_Sahaptin_ I) for _bad_,
_mean_, page 412, (G) refers to the type of hand position so marked,
being identically that position, but in the following reference, to
(R 1), the type referred to by the letter R has the palm to the front
instead of backward, being in all other respects the position which it
is desired to illustrate; (R), therefore, taken in connection with
the description, indicates that change, and that alone. This mode
of reference is farther explained in the EXAMPLES at the end of this
paper.
References to another title word as explaining a part of a description
or to supply any other portions of a compound sign will always be
understood as being made to the description by the same authority
of the sign under the other title-word. Example: In the second
description by (_Sahaptin_ I) for _bad, mean_, above mentioned, the
reference to GOOD is to that sign for _good_ which is contributed by
Rev. G.L. DEFFENBAUGH, and is referred to as (_Sahaptin_ I.).