No. 2.] CAMPBELL — AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. 71 



ral index .md the root; thus in ae-y<i-enagal I came, de-yaenagui 

 I shall coQie. ne \h the index of past and de of future time. But 

 in the neii>hbourinL^ Peruvian and Chilcno lauL^uiges the tempo 

 ral index follows the verbal root as in Iroquois, Dacotah, &c. 

 Of the positions of the accusative and genitive in this family I 

 am not able to speak. It is worthy of note, however, that in 

 Mbaya the adjective follows the noun it qualifies, while in the 

 Maya Quiche and Algonquin languages it precedes, as in the 

 majority of American tongues. The identity in form of the 

 Mbaya and the Quiche verb, a form in itself so peculiar and 

 diflfering so widely from those of nearly all other American lan- 

 guages, is the main link uniting the earlier fortunes of the 

 Mbaya-Abipone family with the Maya-Quiche and the Algonquin. 

 Turning now from America, where can the philologist discover 

 a language or group of languages that will satisfy the grammati- 

 cal conditions of the prepositional American family in comparison? 

 Such language or languages must be soft, abounding in vowel 

 sounds, must employ prepositions, must set the temporal index 

 before the verbal root, and, if we take the Quich4 and Mbaya 

 as typical, must also make it precede the pronoun before the root, 

 must postpone the accusative to the verb, and probably the geni- 

 tive to its governing word and the adjective to its noun. These 

 conditions are numerous enough to satisfy the most exacting 

 critic. I do not profess an exhaustive acquaintance with the 

 grammatical systems of the Old World ; but, after a survey 

 of the most important of these, I find one that does fulfil all 

 the conditions, and only one. It is that of the Malay-Polyne- 

 sian languages, which cover the vast area from Malacca to New 

 Zealand, and from Madagascar to the Sandwich and Easter 

 Islands. Every one who has ever heard of these languages knows 

 that they carry the palm for soft, liquid sounds over all other 

 tongues. They use prepositions, and prepositions exclusively. 

 Their verb is identical in structure with that of the Quiche and 

 Mbaya. Take, for instance the verb " to make " in the language 

 of the Tonga or Friendly Islands, which is yndht, and compare 

 it with the corresponding Mbaya verb i/oeni : the Tongan ne-oo- 

 gnahi, I made, and te-oo-gii<ihi, I shall make, are not simply 

 analogous to, but identical with the Mbaya ue-yu-t/oeni, de-ya- 

 yoeni. In the case of the accusative, ivi-lu-gnahi he togi, " he 

 made axes," is .m Tongan sentence exhibiting its position after 

 the verb in the Malay-Polynesian languages, thus furnishing 



