78 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



or Nez Perce grammar I have not yet had opportunity to become 

 acquainted. Dr. Latham regards them as the first of the Oregon 

 tribes in point of culture, as in pliysical appearance more like 

 the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains than any others in the 

 same area, and mentions the fact that the more eastern of them 

 have crossed tljat great natural barrier into the buffalo region, 

 where they have become hunters, like the neighbouring Algonquin 

 Blackfeet and Shienues. In the Sahaptins I believe that the 

 link is found uniting the Algonquin stock with the Pacific. 

 Languaoe, however, must be the first test. The number 2 in 

 Cayuse, a Sahaptin dialect, is leplin, a form so peculiar that in 

 a collection of over six hundred vocabularies the only one with 

 which I can compare it is leplu of the Gani, a language of the 

 Moluccas group. The same formation in lep appears in the num- 

 ber 7, noUip in Cayuse, but hpjit in Gani. Otherwise the 

 Sahaptin numerals have miscellaneous Malay-Polynesian affini- 

 ties : the Sahaptin mitat. 3, connecting with the Paumotuan 

 netL and veti of the Isle of Pines, which latter language aives 

 tahue as the equivalent of the Cayuse tmcit, 5. and noibeti as 

 that of the Cayuse noimat, 8, while the Cayuse piping, 4, and 

 noina, 6, are represented by the Javanese pappat and nannam. 

 In the ordinary vocabulary most of the Sahaptin words are found 

 to relate to those of the dialects of Celebes, Ceram, Gilolo, 

 Bouru and other islands of the Moluccas. Thus, dog, which 

 is marital in Williamet, and naapang in Cayuse, is muntoa in 

 Celebes, and naioang in Ceram ; man, which is iniaw in Wai- 

 latpu, and keewas in Sahaptin, is auow in Gilolo, and gehha in 

 Bouru. Knife is tekeh Sahaptin, and shekt Cayuse, and in 

 Ceram the same forms appear as tuha and seite, while ivals, 

 another Sahaptin term for the same object, meets us in ot/leps 

 of the Pelew Islands, which would naturall}^ be one of the earlier 

 st-iges in the north-eastward progress of the Malay emi-grants. 

 Mouth is mandi in Williamet, him in Sahaptin, and shumkakoh 

 in Cayuse, forms which appear in the Tongan moudoo, the Teof 

 huin and the Javanese sankum. The Williamet Juannitih, house, 

 is the Bouru liuma ; the Klikitat wassas, canoe, the Gilolo wog ; 

 the Williamet iimpium, day, the Celebes unuveiio, and umhok, flesh, 

 in the same dialect, the Celebes untok ; while tslial^ another 

 Williamet word denoting tho colour red, is the Gilolo desoeUa. 

 Peculiarly Malay-Algonquin forms are the Sahaptin hipi, white, 

 and the Williamet -ind Cayuse puti and feJiif, tooth, which find 



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