179 (Champollion, _Dict._, p. 1).

[Illustration: Fig. 180.]

[Illustration: Fig. 181.]

[Illustration: Fig. 182.]

A sign for _cloud_ is as follows: (1) Both hands partially closed,
palms facing and near each other, brought up to level with or slightly
above, but in front of the head; (2) suddenly separated sidewise,
describing a curve like a scallop; this scallop motion is repeated for
"many clouds." (_Cheyenne_ II.) The same conception is in the Moqui
etchings, Figs. 180, 181, and 182 (Gilbert _MS._)

[Illustration: Fig. 183.]

The Ojibwa pictograph for _cloud_ is more elaborate, Fig. 183,
reported in Schoolcraft, I, pl. 58. It is composed of the sign for
_sky_, to which that for _clouds_ is added, the latter being reversed
as compared with the Moqui etchings, and picturesquely hanging from
the sky.

[Illustration: Fig. 184.]

The gesture sign for _rain_ is described and illustrated on page
344. The pictograph, Fig. 184, reported as found in New Mexico by
Lieutenant Simpson (_Ex. Doc. No. 64, Thirty-first Congress, first
session_, 1850, pl. 9) is said to represent Montezuma's adjutants
sounding a blast to him for rain. The small character inside the curve
which represents the sky, corresponds with the gesturing hand. The
Moqui etching (Gilbert _MS._) for _rain_, i.e., a cloud from which the
drops are falling, is given in Fig. 185.

[Illustration: Fig. 185.]

[Illustration: Fig. 186.]

The same authority gives two signs for _lightning_, Figs. 186 and 187.
In the latter the sky is shown, the changing direction of the streak,
and clouds with rain falling. The part relating specially to the
streak is portrayed in a sign as follows: Right hand elevated before
and above the head, forefinger pointing upward, brought down with
great rapidity with a sinuous, undulating motion; finger still
extended diagonally downward toward the right. (_Cheyenne_ II.)

[Illustration: Fig. 187.]

[Illustration: Fig. 188.]

[Illustration: Fig. 189.]

Figs. 188 and 189 also represent _lightning_, taken by Mr. W.H.
Jackson, photographer of the late U.S. Geolog. and Geog. Survey, from
the decorated walls of an estufa in the Pueblo de Jemez, New Mexico.
The former is blunt, for harmless, and the latter terminating in an
arrow or spear point, for destructive or fatal, lightning.

[Illustration: Fig. 190.]

[Illustration: Fig. 191.]

A common sign for _speech, speak_, among the Indians is the repeated
motion of the index i