[Illustration: AN AMERINDIAN TYPE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA]
Sign and gesture language[9] was extraordinarily developed amongst all
the Amerindian races from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic. Not only
that, but they were quick to understand the purpose of pictures. They
could draw maps in the sand to explain the geography of their country,
and Europeans could often make them understand what they required by
rough drawings. They themselves related many events by means of a
picture language--the beginning of hieroglyphics; and in the
south-eastern parts of Canada, as in the United States, these signs or
pictographs were recorded in bead-shell work--the celebrated "wampum".
[Footnote 9: "It is surprising how dexterous all these natives of the
plains are in communicating their ideas by signs. They hold
conferences for several hours, upon different subjects, during the
whole of which time not a single word is pronounced upon either side,
and still they appear to comprehend each other perfectly well. This
mode of communication is natural to them; their gestures are made with
the greatest ease, and they never seem to be at a loss for a sign to
express their meaning" (Alex. Henry the Younger, 1800). But it should
also be noted that during the last hundred years the peoples belonging
to the N[-u]tka-Columbian group have developed a trade language which
they use in common.
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