Express with the hand the sign of a big belly. (Dakota III.)
Pass the flat right hand, back forward, from the top of the breast, downward, outward, and inward to the pubis. (Dakota VI; Hidatsa I; Arikara I.) “Big belly.”
Indian (generically).
Hand in type-position K, inverted, back forward, is raised above the head with forefinger directed perpendicularly to the crown. Describe with it a short gentle curve upward and backward in such a manner that the finger will point upward and backward, back outward, at the termination of the motion. (Ojibwa V.) “Indicates a feather planted upon the head—the characteristic adornment of the Indian.”
Make the sign for White Man, viz: Draw the open right hand horizontally from left to right across the forehead a little above the eyebrows, the back of the hand to be upward and the fingers pointing toward the left, or close all the fingers except the index, and draw it across the forehead in the same manner; then make the sign for No; then move the upright index about a foot from side to side, in front of right shoulder, at the same time rotating the hand a little. (Dakota IV.)
Rub the back of the extended left hand with the palmar surfaces of the extended fingers of the right. (Comanche II.) “People of the same kind; dark-skinned.”
Rub the back of the left hand with the index of the right. (Pai-Ute I; Wichita I.)
Kaiowa.
Make the signs of the Prairie and of Drinking Water. (Burton; Blackmore in Dodge’s Plains of the Great West. New York, 1877, p. xxiv.)
Cheyennes make the same sign as (Comanche II), and think it was intended to convey the idea of cropping the hair. The men wear one side of the hair of the head full length and done up as among the Cheyennes, the other side being kept cropped off about even with the neck and hanging loose. (Cheyenne II.)