These images are from the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Dancing Men. While some variations of the cipher exist, the given images are taken directly from the version used in Arthur Conan Doyle’s original manuscript. This site has more information. The glyphs at the top of the page simply spell out DANCING MEN, as confirmation for solvers that they are indeed on the correct track.
Each of the four paragraphs gives a set of instructions. Taking each sentence as a single instruction gives a number of different positions, each of which is recognizable as a letter in the dancing men cipher. A full translation of the first paragraph is in this gallery:
Begin in fourth position. (given at the top of the page) – C 
Lift up your right arm to match your left. – M 
Now straighten both legs, lifting the left. – I 
Spin halfway around. – R 
Hold this position. – R 
Keeping your arms as they are, stand on your right leg and bend the left. – O 
Finally, return to the previous position. – R
Thus, the first paragraph gives the clue C MIRROR. The other three paragraphs can be completed in the same way to spell out E BENT LEG, G NO CHANGE, and M LEG STRAIGHT. The mirrored version of C in the dancing men cipher gives a Y. E with one leg bent could be either A or O; likewise M with one leg straight could also be A or O. While this leaves a bit of uncertainty, none of YAGA, YAGO, or YOGO are words, so the answer has to be YOGA.