1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 307 



may be compared to a very coarse or harsh method 

 of lisping. It is difficult to represent this sound by 

 any composition of our letters, unless, somehow, from 

 IszthL This is one of their most usual terminations, 

 though we sometimes found it in the beginning of 

 words. The next most general termination is com- 

 posed of tl ; and many words end with % and ss. A 

 specimen or two, of each of these, is here put down : 



Opulszthl, The sun. 



Onidszthl, The moon. 



Kahsheetl, Dead. 



Teeshcheetl, To throw a stone. 



Kooomitz, A human skull. 



Qiiahmiss, Fish roe. 



" They seem to take so great a latitude in their mode 

 of speaking, that I have sometimes observed four or 

 five different terminations of the same word. This 

 is a circumstance very puzzling at first to a stranger, 

 and marks a great imperfection in their language. 



" As to the composition of it, we can say very 

 little ; having been scarcely able to distinguish the 

 several parts of speech. It can only be inferred, 

 from their method of speaking, which is very slow 

 and distinct, that it has few prepositions or conjunc- 

 tions ; and, as far as we could discover, is destitute of 

 even a single interjection, to express admiration or 

 surprise. From its having few conjunctions, it may 

 be conceived, that these being thought unnecessary, 

 as being understood, each single word, with them, 

 will also express a great deal, to comprehend several 

 simple ideas ; which seems to be the case. But, for 

 the same reason, the language will be defective in 

 other respects ; not having words to distinguish or 

 express differences which really exist, and hence not 

 sufficiently copious. This was observed to be the 

 case in many instances, particularly with respect to 

 the names of animals. The relation or affinity it 



x 2 



