Stránka:roll 1916.djvu/189

Things to Know and Do It is, moreover, part of my method to take the child through the stages of our race development, just as the young bird must run for a send-ofT, before it flies, so pictography being its earliest form is the natural first step to writing. In general, picture-writmg aims to give on paper the idea of the Sign Language without first turning it into sounds. In the dictionaiy of Sign Language is given the written form after each of the signs that has a well-established or possible symbol. Many of these are drawn from the Indians who were among the best scouts and above noted for their use of the picture-writing. A few of them will serve to illustrate. o I II Ml nil V V» V" y" Oam'-T, Numbers were originally fingers held up, and five was the whole hand, while ten was a double hand. We can see traces of this origin in the Roman style of numeration. A one-night camp, a more permanent camp, a village and a town are shown in legible symbols. jJAn enemy, sometimes expressed as a "snake," recalls our own "snake in the grass." A " friend, ' was a man with a branch of a tree; because this was commonly used as a flag of truce and had indeed the same meaning as our olive branch. The tree is easily read; it was a pair of figures like this done in Wampum that recorded Penn's Treaty. "Good" is sometimes given as a circle full of lines all straight and level, and for "bad" they are crooked and contrary. The wavy lines stood for water, so good water is clearly indicated. The three arrows added mean that at three arrows flights in that direction, that is a quarter mile, there is good water. If there was but one arrow and it pointed straight down that meant "good water here," if it pointed down and outward it meant