SIGNALS.
The collaborators in the work above explained have not generally responded to the request to communicate material under this head. It is, however, hoped that by now printing some extracts from published works and the few contributions recently procured, the attention of observers will be directed to the prosecution of research in this direction.
The term "signal" is here used in distinction from the signs noted in the Dictionary, extracts from which are given above, as being some action or manifestation intended to be seen at a distance, and not allowing of the minuteness or detail possible in close converse. Signals may be executed, first, exclusively by bodily action; second, by action of the person in connection with objects, such as a blanket, or a lance, or the direction imparted to a horse; third, by various devices, such as smoke, fire or dust, when the person of the signalist is not visible. When not simply intended to attract attention they are generally conventional, and while their study has not the same kind of importance as that of gesture signs, it possesses some peculiar interest.
SIGNALS EXECUTED BY BODILY ACTION.
Some of these are identical, or nearly so, with the gesture signs used by the same people.
ALARM. See Notes on Cheyenne and Arapaho signals, infra.
ANGER.
Close the hand, place it against the forehead, and turn it back and forth while in that position. (Col. R.B. Marcy, U.S.A., Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border, New York, 1866, p. 34.)
COME HERE.
The right hand is to be advanced about eighteen inches at the height of the navel, horizontal, relaxed, palm downward, thumb in the palm; then draw it near the side and at the same time drop the hand to bring the palm backward. The farther away the person called is, the higher the hand is raised. If very far off, the hand is raised high up over the head and then swung forward, downward, and backward to the side. (Dakota I, IV.)