See. Strike out the two forefingers forward from the eyes.
Smell. Touch the nose-tip. A bad smell is expressed by the same sign, ejaculating at the same time, “pooh,” and making the sign of bad.
Taste. Touch the tongue-tip.
Eat. Imitate the actions of conveying food with the fingers to the mouth.
Drink. Scoop up with the hand imaginary water into the mouth.
Smoke. With the crooked index describe a pipe in the air, beginning at the lips, then wave the open hand from the mouth to imitate curls of smoke.
Speak. Extend the open hand from the chin.
Fight. Make a motion with both fists to and fro like a pugilist of the eighteenth century who preferred a high guard.
Kill. Smite the sinister palm earthwards, with the dexter fist sharply, the sign of going down, or strike out with the dexter fist towards the ground, meaning to “shut down,” or pass the dexter index under the left forefinger, meaning to “go under.”
Some of the symbols of relationship are highly appropriate and not ungraceful or unpicturesque. Man is denoted by a sign which will not admit of description; woman by passing the hand down both sides of the head, as if smoothing or stroking the long hair. For a child, a bit of the index held between the antagonised thumb and medius is shown. The same sign expresses both parents, with additional explanations. To say, for instance, my mother, you would first pantomime “I,” or, which is the same thing, my, then woman, and finally, the symbol of parentage. My grandmother would be conveyed in the same way, adding to the end, clasped hands, closed eyes, and like an old woman’s bent back. The sign for brother and sister is perhaps the prettiest; the two first finger-tips are put into the mouth, denoting that they fed from the same breast. For the wife—squaw is now becoming a word of reproach amongst the Indians—the dexter forefinger is passed between the extended thumb and index of the left.