Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/499

Rh The ideogram of clasped hands to indicate peace and friendship is found in pictographs from many localities. It is possible that the exhibition and presentation of the unarmed hand, to be mentioned in another connection, may have affected the practice, but the probability that the paramount idea was that of agreement is enhanced by a prescribed pantomime of the old Roman law continuing down to the empire from the time of Numa, or the prehistoric lawgivers who were embraced in his mythic personality. The contestants before the legal tribunals were compelled each to offer his right hand for the clasp of his adversary in token of good faith and confidence, before the cause was heard. The same pantomime, pretending honesty of purpose, is obligatory now between prize-fighters, stripped and in the ring, before the first blow can be struck. Support to the hypothesis comes also from a formulary which is still common in Ireland and in some parts of England, of depositing saliva in the right hands and then mutually grasping them to solemnize or cement a bargain.

In several parts of the world the junction is not of the hands, but of some or all of the fingers bent so as to form hooks or links, thus removing from the salutation the suggestion of magnetic pressure and sympathy, and substituting that of mechanical attachment. The Papuans of Torres Strait partially bend the fingers of the right hand and hook them with those of the person saluted, then rapidly jerk the hands apart. This is repeated several times. Schweinfurth describes as general in Africa the hooking of the middle fingers, and their violent jerking, often causing the "crack" before mentioned. The Dakota sign for "friend" is to point forward and a little upward with the joined and extended fore and middle fingers of the right hand, which is about a foot in front of the right breast; move the hand upward to the right side of the face, then straight forward about eight inches, and then a little upward. Thus a hook is pictured in the air. Or the bent right index, palm downward, is hooked over the bent left index, palm upward, the hands about a foot in front of the body. The Southern Indians frequently link their index-fingers in front of the body to express friendship. A more emphatic sign made by the Comanche is to bring the two hands near each other in front, and clasp the two index-fingers tightly, so that the tips of the finger and the thumb of each hand touch, thus forming two distinct and united links.

The Delaware Noaman, in his speech at Tinicum, made the sign for friendship in special connection with alliance "by the semblance of making a knot." The etymology of alliance from alligare, to bind to, is at once recalled. Some deaf-mutes in the United States interlock the forefingers for "friendship"; clasp the hands, right uppermost, for "marriage"; and make the last sign,