190 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



places of deposit for their winter subsistence, as well 

 as the sites for their habitations. Strangely as it may 

 appear to us, the winter life of the beaver, while shut 

 up in the seeming darkness of a pond covered over 

 with its white mantle of ice and snow, is made a 

 season of security, of comfort, and of pleasure. Thus 

 we see, on every hand, how the Divine Author of ex- 

 istence has hedged about the lives of these remembered 

 creatures with His protecting care. 



Note. — It is a peculiarity of the languages of our Indian na- 

 tions that, while they are barren of terms to express metaphys- 

 ical or abstract conceptions, they are opulent in terms for the 

 designation of natural objects, and for expressing relative differ- 

 ences in the same object. In the Ojibwa, for example, there are 

 different names for the beaver according to his age, and com- 

 pound terms to indicate sex, as follows : 



Specific name, Ah-raik'. 



Year old and under, Ah-wa-ne-sha'. 



Two years old, 0-bo-ye-wa'. 



Full grown, or old, Gi-chi-ah'-mik, 



Male beaver, Ah-yii-ba-mik'. 



Female beaver No-zha-mik^ 



Their terms for the works of the beaver are the following : 

 O-ko'-min, beaver dam ; Wig-e-wam', beaver lodge ; 0-wazhe', 

 beaver burrow; O-de-na-o'-nane, beaver canal — literally, "made 

 channel to travel in;" 0-da-be-naze', lodge chamber — literally, 

 " lodging place ;" Pii-pa-num-wad', snow chimney over lodge — lit- 

 erally, "where they let off their breath." They have names, 

 also, for the different kinds of cuttings ; but they are descriptive 

 rather than specific terms. 



(a, as in ale; a, as in father; a, as in at; 1, as in ice; \, as in it.) 



