Sign Language Among North American Indians 10

Sign Language Among North American Indians 10

tells a story which is substantially the foundation of the

slender plot of most modern scenic pantomimes preliminary to the

bursting forth from their chrysalides of Harlequin, Columbine,

Pantaloon, and company. A young girl, with the consent of her parents,

has for some time promised her hand to an honest youth. The old

mother, in despite of her word, has taken a caprice to give her

daughter to another suitor. The father, though much under the sway of

his spouse, is in his heart desirous to keep his engagement, and has

called in the notary to draw the contract. At this moment the scene

begins, the actors of which, for greater perspicuity and brevity, may

be provided with stage names as follows:

 

Cecca, diminutive for Francisca, the mother of--

Nanella, diminutive of Antoniella, the betrothed of--

Peppino, diminutive of Peppe, which is diminutive of Giuseppe.

Pasquale, husband of Cecca and father of Nanella.

Tonno, diminutive of Antonio, favored by Cecca.

D. Alfonso, notary.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Disturbance at signing of Neapolitan marriage

contract.]

 

[Illustration: Fig. 82.]

 

Cecca tries to pick a quarrel with Peppino, and declares that

the contract shall not be signed. He reminds her of her promise,

and accuses her of breach of faith. In her passion she calls

on her daughter to repudiate her lover, and casting her arms

around her, commands her to make the sign of breaking off

friendship--"_scocchiare_"--which, she has herself made to Peppino,

and which consists in extending the hand with the joined ends of

finger and thumb before described, see Fig. 66, and then separating

them, thus breaking the union. This the latter reluctantly pretends

to do with one hand, yet with the other, which is concealed from her

irate mother's sight, shows her constancy by continuing with emphatic

pressure the sign of _love_. According to the gesture vocabulary, on

the sign _scocchiare_ being made to a person who is willing to accept

the breach of former affection, he replies in the same manner, or

still more forcibly by inserting the index of the other hand between

the index and thumb of the first, thus showing the separation by the

presence of a material obstacle. Simply refraining from holding out

the hand in any responsive gesture is sufficient to indicate that

the breach is not accepted, but that the party addressed desires to

continue in friendship instead of resolving into enmity. This weak

and inactive negative, however, does not suit Peppino's vivacity, who,

placing his left hand on his bosom, makes, with his right, one of the

signs for emphatic negation. This consists of the palm turned to the

person addressed with the index somewhat extended and separated from

the other fingers, the whole hand being oscillated from right to left.

This gesture appears on ancient Greek vases, and is compound, the

index being demonstrative and the negation shown by the horizontal

oscillation, the whole being translatable as, "That thing I want not,

won't have, reject." The sign is virtually the same as that made by

Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians (see EXTRACTS FROM DICTIONARY, page 440,

_infra_.). The conception of oscillation to show negation also appears

with different execution in the sign of the Jicarilla Apaches and the

Pai-Utes, Fig. 82. The same sign is reported from Japan, in the same

sense.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Coming home of Neapolitan bride.]

 

Tonno, in hopes that the quarrel is definitive, to do his part in

stopping the ceremony, proceeds to blow out the three lighted candles,

which are an important traditional feature of the rite. The good old

man Pasquale, with his hands extended, raised in surprised displeasure

and directed toward the insolent youth, stops his attempt. The veteran

notary, familiar with such quarrels in his experience, smiles at this

one, and, continuing in his quiet attitude, extends his right hand

placidly to Peppino with the sign of _adagio_, before described, see

Fig. 68, advising him not to get excited, but to persist quietly, and

all would be well.

 

* * * * *

 

Fig. 83 portrays the first entrance of a bride to her husband's

house. She comes in with a tender and languid mien, her pendent

arms indicating soft yielding, and the right hand loosely holds a

handkerchief, ready to apply in case of overpowering emotion. She is,

or feigns to be, so timid and embarrassed as to require support by

the arm of a friend who introduces her. She is followed by a male

friend of the family, whose joyful face is turned toward supposed

by-standers, right hand pointing to the new acquisition, while with

his left he makes the sign of horns before described, see Fig. 79,

which in this connection is to wish prosperity and avert misfortune,

and is equivalent to the words in the Neapolitan dialect,

"_Mal'uocchie non nce pozzano_"--may evil eyes never have power over

her.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 84.]

 

The female confidant, who supports and guides her embarrassed

friend with her right arm, brings her left hand into the sign of

_beautiful_--"See what a beauty she is!" This sign is made by the

thumb and index open and severally lightly touching each side of the

lower cheek, the other fingers open. It is given on a larger scale and

slightly varied in Fig. 84, evidently referring to a fat and rounded

visage. Almost the same sign is made by the Ojibwas of Lake Superior,

and a mere variant of it is made by the Dakotas--stroking the cheeks

alternately down to the tip of the chin with the palm or surface of

the extended fingers.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 85.]

 

The mother-in-law greets the bride by making the sign _mano in fica_

with her right hand. This sign, made with the hand clenched and

the point of the thumb between and projecting beyond the fore and

middle fingers, is more distinctly shown in Fig. 85. It has a very

ancient origin, being found on Greek antiques that have escaped the

destruction of time, more particularly in bronzes, and undoubtedly

refers to the _pudendum muliebre_. It is used offensively and

ironically, but also--which is doubtless the case in this instance--as

an invocation or prayer against evil, being more forcible than the

horn-shaped gesture before described. With this sign the Indian sign

for _female_, see Fig. 132, page 357, _infra_, may be compared.

 

The mother-in-law also places her left hand hollowed in front of her

abdomen, drawing with it her gown slightly forward, thereby making a

pantomimic representation of the state in which "women wish to be who

love their lords"; the idea being plainly an expressed hope that the

household will be blessed with a new generation.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 86.]

 

[Illustration: Fig. 87.]

 

Next to her is a hunchback, who is present as a familiar clown or

merrymaker, and dances and laughs to please the company, at the same

time snapping his fingers. Two other illustrations of this action, the

middle finger in one leaving and in the other having left the thumb

and passed to its base, are seen in Figs. 86, 87. This gesture by

itself has, like others mentioned, a great variety of significations,

but here means _joy_ and acclamation. It is frequently used among us

for subdued applause, less violent than clapping the two hands, but

still oftener to express negation with disdain, and also carelessness.

Both these uses of it are common in Naples, and appear in Etruscan

vases and Pompeian paintings, as well as in the classic authors. The

significance of the action in the hand of the contemporary statue of

Sardanapalus at Anchiale is clearly _worthlessness_, as shown by the

inscription in Assyrian, "Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes,

built in one day Anchiale and Tarsus. Eat, drink, play; the rest is

not worth _that_!"

 

[Illustration: Fig. 88.]

 

The bridegroom has left his mother to do the honors to the bride, and

himself attends to the rest of the company, inviting one of them to

drink some wine by a sign, enlarged in Fig. 88, which is not merely

pointing to the mouth with the thumb, but the hand with the incurved

fingers represents the body of the common glass flask which the

Neapolitans use, the extended thumb being its neck; the invitation is

therefore specially to drink wine. The guest, however, responds by

a very obvious gesture that he don't wish anything to drink, but he

would like to eat some macaroni, the fingers being disposed as if

handling that comestible in the fashion of vulgar Italians. If the

idea were only to eat generally, it would have been expressed by the

fingers and thumb united in a point and moved several times near and

toward the mouth, not raised above it, as is necessary for suspending

the strings of macaroni.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Quarrel between Neapolitan women.]

 

In Fig. 89 the female in the left of the group is much disgusted at

seeing one of her former acquaintances, who has met with good fortune,

promenade in a fine costume with her husband. Overcome with jealousy,

she spreads out her dress derisively on both sides, in imitation of

the hoop-skirts once worn by women of rank, as if to say "So you are

playing the great lady!" The insulted woman, in resentment, makes with

both hands, for double effect, the sign of horns, before described,

which in this case is done obviously in menace and imprecation. The

husband is a pacific fellow who is not willing to get into a woman's

quarrel, and is very easily held back by a woman and small boy who

happen to join the group. He contents himself with pretending to be in

a great passion and biting his finger, which gesture may be collated

with the emotional clinching of the teeth and biting the lips in

anger, common to all mankind.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 90.--The cheating Neapolitan chestnut huckster.]

 

[Illustration: Fig. 91.]

 

In Fig. 90 a contadina, or woman from the country, who has come to the

city to sell eggs (shown to be such by her head-dress, and the form of

the basket which she has deposited on the ground), accosts a vender of

roast chestnuts and asks for a measure of them. The chestnut huckster

says they are very fine and asks a price beyond that of the market;

but a boy sees that the rustic woman is not sharp in worldly matters

and desires to warn her against the cheat. He therefore, at the moment

when he can catch her eye, pretending to lean upon his basket, and

moving thus a little behind the huckster, so as not to be seen, points

him out with his index finger, and lays his left forefinger under his

eye, pulling down the skin slightly, so as to deform the regularity

of the lower eyelid. This is a _warning against a cheat_, shown more

clearly in Fig. 91. This sign primarily indicates a squinting person,

and metaphorically one whose looks cannot be trusted, even as in

a squinting person you cannot be certain in which direction he is looking.