This, as Mr. Taylor
remarks,[6] "is not very intelligible as we generally see it;
but when we notice that the same sign made quite gently,
as if rolling some tiny object away between the finger and thumb,
or the sign of flipping it away with the thumb-nail and forefinger,
are usual and well-understood deaf-and-dumb gestures, denoting
anything tiny, insignificant, contemptible, it seems as though we
had exaggerated and conventionalized a perfectly natural action,
so as to lose sight of its original meaning. There is a curious
mention of this gesture by Strabo." Mr. Washington Matthews
informs me that, with the Dakota Indians of North America,
contempt is shown not only by movements of the face, such as those
above described, but "conventionally, by the hand being closed
and held near the breast, then, as the forearm is suddenly extended,
the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other.
If the person at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand
is moved towards him, and the head sometimes averted from him."
This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps indicates
the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.
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