Fig. 48.—Alaskan notice of departure.
The explanation of the above characters is as follows:
1, 3, 5, 7, represent the person spoken to.
2. Indicates the speaker with his right hand to the side or breast, indicating self, the left hand pointing in the direction in which he is going.
4. Both hands elevated, with fingers and thumbs signifies many, according to the informant. When the hands are thus held up, in sign-language, it signifies ten, but when they are brought toward and backward from one another, many.
6. The right hand is placed to the head to denote sleep—many sleeps, or, in other words, many nights and days; the left hand points downward, at that place.
8. The right hand is directed toward the starting point, while the left is brought upward toward the head—to go home, or whence he came.
The following is the text in the same dialect last mentioned, with, translation:
Hui a-qtcí-kua a-xlá mŭn nu-ná-mŭn, am-lić-ka-mŭ´-ik ha-wá-xa-lu-a,
I go (to) another place, many sleeps
(settlement) (nights)
ta-wá-nĭ, tca-lĭ´ hui a-ni-qlú-a.
there, then I return.