Fig. 318.
(64) Make sign No. 35, the movement being directed to the left hand, as held in No. 49—told the white men, (65) grasping the hair on the right side of the head with the left hand, and drawing the extended right hand with the edge towards and across the side of the head from behind forward—to scalp; (66) close the right hand, leaving the index partly extended, and wave it several times quickly from side to side a short distance before the face, slightly shaking the head at the same time—no, Fig. 318, (67) make gesture No. 4—me, (68) repeat No. 65—scalp, (69) and raising the forelock high with the left hand, straighten the whole frame with a triumphant air—make me a great chief. (70) Close the right hand with the index fully extended, place the tip to the mouth and direct it firmly forward and downward toward the ground—stop, (71) then placing the hands, pointing upward, side by side, thumbs touching, and all the fingers separated, move them from near the breast outward toward the right, palms facing that direction at termination of movement—the Banaks went to one side, (72) with the right hand closed, index curved, palm downward, point toward the western horizon, and at arm’s length dip the finger downward—after sunset, (73) make the gesture given as No. 14—white men, (74) pointing to the heart as in No. 4—and I, (75) conclude by making gesture No. 18 from near body toward the left, four times, at the end of each movement the hands remaining in the same position, thrown slightly upward—we four escaped on horseback.
The above was paraphrased orally by the narrator as follows: “Hearing of the trouble in the north, I started eastward from my camp in Western Nevada, when, upon arriving at Winnemucca Station, I received telegraphic orders from the head chief to go north to induce our bands in that region to escape the approaching difficulties with the Banaks. I started for Camp McDermit, where I remained one night. Leaving next morning in company with nine others, we rode on for four days and a half. Soon after our arrival at the Pai-Ute camp, two Banaks came in, when I sent twelve Pai-Utes to their camp to ask them all to come in to hold council. These messengers soon returned, when I collected all the Pai-Utes ands talked to them all night regarding the dangers of an alliance with the Banaks and of their continuance in that locality. Next morning I sent my brother to the chief, Winnimukka, with a report of proceedings.
“On the following day three white men rode into camp, who had come up to aid in persuading the Pai-Utes to move away from the border. Next morning I consulted with them respecting future operations, after which they went away a short distance to their camp. I then followed them, where I shot and killed a steer, and while skinning it the Banaks came in, when the meat was distributed. The Banaks being disposed to become violent at any moment, the white men became alarmed, when I told them that rather than allow them to be scalped I would be scalped myself in defending them, for which action I would be considered as great a chief as Winnemukka by my people. When I told the Banaks to cease threatening the white men they all moved to one side a short distance to hold a war council, and after the sun went down the white men and I mounted our horses and fled toward the south, whence we came.”
Some of the above signs seem to require explanation. Natci was facing the west during the whole of this narration, and by the right he signified the north; this will explain the significance of his gesture to the right in Nos. 11 and 17, and to the left in No. 75.
No. 2 (repeated in Nos. 22, 27, 33, and 41) designates an Indian brush lodge, and although Natci has not occupied one for some years, the gesture illustrates the original conception in the round form of the foundation of poles, branches, and brush, the interlacing of which in the construction of the wik´-i-up has survived in gestures Nos. 3 and 23 (the latter referring to more than one, i.e., an encampment).
The sign for Banak, No. 25 (also 32 and 59), has its origin from the tradition among the Pai-Utes that the Banaks were in the habit of cutting the throats of their victims. This sign is made with the index instead of the similar gesture with the flat hand, which among several tribes denotes the Sioux, but the Pai-Utes examined had no specific sign for that body of Indians, not having been in sufficient contact with them.
“A stopping place,” referred to in Nos. 6, 12, 52, and 54, represents the temporary station, or camp of white men, and is contradistinguished from a village, or perhaps from any permanent encampment of a number of persons, by merely dotting toward the ground instead of indicating a circle.
It will also be seen that in several instances, after indicating the nationality, the fingers previously used in representing the number were repeated without its previously accompanying specific gesture, as in No. 61, where the three fingers of the left hand represented the men (white), and the three movements toward the ground signified the camp or tents of the three (white) men.