Note Concerning the Foregoing Types

The positions are given as they appear to an observer facing the gesturer, and are designed to show the relations of the fingers to the hand rather than the positions of the hand relative to the body, which must be shown by the outlines (see Outlines of Arm Positions) or description. The right and left hands are figured above without discrimination, but in description or reference the right hand will be understood when the left is not specified. The hands as figured can also with proper intimation be applied with changes either upward, downward, or inclined to either side, so long as the relative positions of the fingers are retained, and when in that respect no one of the types exactly corresponds with a sign observed, modifications may be made by pen or pencil on that one of the types, or a tracing of it, found most convenient, as indicated in the Examples, and referred to by the letter of the alphabet under the type changed, with the addition of a numeral—e.g., A 1, and if that type, i.e., A, were changed a second time by the observer (which change would necessarily be drawn on another sheet of types or another tracing of a type selected when there are no sheets provided), it should be referred to as A 2.

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Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared with that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes, 1881

Indian Sign Language