Note 81 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
It has before been mentioned that the division and notation of time vary extremely in the Indian tribes; those who have had much commerce with the whites have coined words answering to what we denominate hours; but the tribes of the Far–western prairies usually express the successive periods of the night by resting the cheek upon the hand in a recumbent posture, and then, holding up the forefinger and thumb in the form of a crescent, they show, by the number of motions which they make in pointing to the sky, the number of hours or watches after nightfall which they wish to indicate.