Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ... towards the face; they are then abruptly dropped with a flinging motion. Birds. A general ideogram is used. The upper arms are extended till on a level with the shoulder and then slightly adducted, so as to lie rather in front of the plane of the body. The elbows are flexed to about a right angle, so that the hands with extended fingers point forward and rather inwards. A flapping movement is then communicated to the latter by alternate flexion and extension at the wrists. Bin. Both arms are semi-flexed at the elbows and held in front of the body, the fingers are alternately flexed and extended. Bow. The left and right hand respectively hold and draw an imaginary bow and bow-string. BrotJier, Sister. The vertex is tapped two or three times with the tips of the fingers of the right hand; this ideogram may in a wider sense mean friend, companion, tribesman, and perhaps conveys the idea as suggested by Roth of "think all same together'." Canoe. The elbow is bent at about a right angle, the upper arm being somewhat abducted and rotated inwards so that the hand is in front of the body; the thumb is closed over the flexed third and fourth fingers, the index and middle fingers being extended and held apart from each other. Children. Hold arms as if nursing a baby, and rock them slowly to and fro. Sex is shown by sign either for Man or Woman. (W.) Coco-nut. The right hand with wrist fully extended is held up so as to be above and 1 Cf. W. E. Both, Ethnological Studies among the North West Central Queensland Aborigines, Brisbane, 1897, p. 82. in front of the right shoulder and its fingers are slightly flexed as if grasping a large object; a twisting movement is then imparted to the hand, suggesting the movements by which a coco-nut is twisted off its stem...