Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/160

149 SIGN LANGUAGE. 149 standing they were unable to speak each other's dialect. The great work from which the facts are taken, comment on this sign language by stating in Vol. 1, Page XXXII; "Numerous aboriginal tribes were at the threshold of writing when the American eontinant was discovered; a few were fairly entered on the domain of graphic expression, but most were still groping blindly and widely for definite methods; and their spontaneous and unguided essays towards the crystallization and perpetuation of thought in graphic symbalswere remarkably curious and instruc- tive. A common mode of recording thought among the Indians inhabiting the territory now forming the territory of the United States was of crude inscrip- tion forming pictographs; accordingly these primi- ■ itive essays toward graphic expression were sub- jected to study, and the research was fruitful. EarUer than the attempt to annihilate time through a permanent record was the effort to bridge the chasm of space by thought symbols extending be- yond the reach of sound; and thus nearly aU primitive people, including most of the American tribeSj de- vised systems of signalling by means of gesture, the waving of weapons and garments, fires, smoke, etc. In conjunction with signalling, many Hi-organized groups of people, consisting of clans and tribes tem- porarily or permanently at peace, but speaking a dis- tinct dialect or tongue, devised systems of gesture or signs for conveying ideas. Among some American tribes this mode of expression became highly de- veloped. Together signalling and gesture speaking constitute a distinct part of expression co-ordinate