334 A VOYAGE TO 



\77^, belonffs, and who own him as their head. Thefe Acxvecks 

 were not always elderly men ; from which I concluded that 

 this title came to them by inheritance. 



I faw nothing that could give the lead infight into their 

 notions of religion, befidcs the figures before mentioned, 

 called by them Klumma. Moft probably thefe were idols ; 

 but as they frequently mentioned the word acivcek, when 

 they fpoke of them, we may, perhaps, be authorized to 

 fuppofe that they are the images of fome of their ancef- 

 tors, whom they venerate as divinities. But all this is 

 mere conjecture ; for we faw no act of religious homage 

 paid to them ; nor could we gain any information, as we 

 had learned little more of their language, than to afk the 

 names of things, without being able to hold any converfa- 

 tion with the natives, that might inflrud us as to their infti- 

 tutions or traditions. 



In drawing up the preceding account of the people of 

 this Sound, 1 have occafionally blended Mr. Anderfon's ob- 

 fervations with my own ; but I owe every thing to him that 

 relates to their language ; and the following remarks are in 

 his own words. 



" Their language is, by no means, harfli or difagreeable, 

 farther than proceeds from their ufmg the k and h with 

 more force, or pronoimcing them with lefs foftnefs than we 

 do ; and, upon the whole, it abounds rather with what we 

 may call labial and dental, than with guttural founds. The 

 fimple founds which we have not heard them ufe, and 

 which, confe(]uently, may be reckoned rare, or wanting in 

 their language, are thofe reprefentcd by the letters b, d^ f, 

 g, r, and V. But, on the other hand, they have one, which 

 is very frequent, and not ufcd by us. It is formed, in a 

 7 particular 



