d and cultivated it to the high development
now attained, from which it will surely and speedily decay.

MISTAKEN DENIAL THAT SIGN LANGUAGE EXISTS.

The most useful suggestion to persons interested in the collection
of signs is that they shall not too readily abandon the attempt to
discover recollections of them even among tribes long exposed
to European influence and officially segregated from others. The
instances where their existence, at first denied, has been ascertained
are important with reference to the theories advanced.

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey has furnished a considerable vocabulary of signs
finally procured from the Poncas, although, after residing among them
for years, with thorough familiarity with their language, and after
special and intelligent exertion to obtain some of their disused
gesture language, he had before reported it to be entirely forgotten.
A similar report was made by two missionaries among the Ojibwas,
though other trustworthy authorities have furnished a copious list
of signs obtained from that tribe. This is no imputation against
the missionaries, as in October, 1880, five intelligent Ojibwas from
Petoskey, Mich., told the writer that they had never heard of gesture
language. An interesting letter from Mr. B.O. Williams, sr., of
Owasso, Mich., explains the gradual decadence of signs used by the
Ojibwas in his recollection, embracing sixty years, as chiefly
arising from general acquaintance with the English language. Further
discouragement came from an Indian agent giving the decided statement,
after four years of intercourse with the Pai-Utes, that no such thing
as a communication by signs was known or even remembered by them,
which, however, was less difficult to bear because on the day of the
receipt of that well-intentioned missive some officers of the Bureau
of Ethnology were actually talking in signs with a delegation of that
very tribe of Indians then in Washington, from one of whom, Natci, a
narrative printed in this paper (page 500), was received.

The report from missionaries, army officers, and travelers in Alaska
was unanimous against the existence of a sign language there until
Mr. Ivan Petroff, whose explorations had been more extensive, gave
the excellent exposition and dialogue now produced (see page 492).
Collections were also obtained from the Apaches and Zuni, Pimas,
Papagos, and Maricopas, after agents and travelers had denied them to
be possessed of any knowledge o