File:Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1879) (18741551813).jpg

Title: Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Identifier: annualreportofbu118791880smit (find matches)
Year: 1880 (1880s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of Ethnology
Subjects: Ethnology; Indians
Publisher: Washington : G. P. O.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
perity and avert misfortune, and is equivalent to the words in the Xeo-
politan dialect, " Mal'uocchie won nee pozzano"—may evil eyes never have
power over her.
The female confidant, who supports and guides her embarrassed friend
with her right arm, brings her left hand into the sign of beautiful—" See
what a beauty she is!" This sign is made by the thumb and index open
and severally lightly touching each side of the lower cheek, the other
lingers open. It is given on a larger scale and slightly varied in Fig. 84,
evidently referring to a fat and rounded visage. Al-
most the same sign is made by the Ojibwas of Lake Su-
perior, and a mere variant of it is made by the Dako-
tas—stroking the cheeks alternately down to the tip
of the chin with the palni or surface of the extended
lingers.
The mother-in-law greets the bride by making the
sign memo infica with her right hand. This sign, made
with the hand clenched and the point of the thumb be-
tween and projecting beyond the fore and middle fin-
gers, is more distinctly shown in Fig. 85. It has a very
ancient origin, being found on Greek antiques that have escaped the de-
struction of time, more particularly in bronzes, and undoubtedly refers
to the pudendum muliebre. It is used offensively and ironically, but
also—which is doubtless the case in this instance—
as an invocation or prayer against evil, being more
forcible than the horn-shaped gesture before de-
scribed. With this sign the Indian sign for female,
see Fig. 132, page 357, infra, may be compared.
The mother-in-law also places her left hand hol-
lowed in front of her abdomen, drawing with it her
gown slightly forward, thereby making a panto-
mimic representation of the state in which " women wish to be who love
their lords"; the idea being plainly an expressed hope that the house-
hold will be blessed with a new generation.
Next to her is a hunchback, who is present as a familiar clown or
merrymaker, and dances and laughs to please the com-
pany, at the same time snapping his fingers. Two other
illustrations of
this action, the middle finger in one
leaving and in the other having left the thumb and passed to its
base, are seen in Figs. 86,87. This gesture by itself has.
like others mentioned, a great variety of significations,
but here means joy and acclamation. It is
frequently used among us for subdued ap-
plause, less violent than clapping the two
hands, but still oftener to express negation
with disdain, and also carelessness. Both
these uses of it are common in Naples, and appear in Etruscan vases and
Text Appearing After Image:
FIG. 90 — The cheating Neapolitan chestnut buckster

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