Sec. il, 1892. [ 19 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



II. — Beothik Vocabularies^ with a Feiv Notes on Paper on the BeothiliS in ' Trans- 

 actions of Roi/al Society of Canada' for 1891. 



By the Rev. George Patterson, D.D. 



(Read June 1, 1892.) 



Below will be found three vocabularies of the Beothik language. The first was 

 taken down by the Rev. John Clinch, it is said from John August. But this is scarcely 

 possible. He was captured when a child and lived with the whites ever after. He could 

 therefore scarcely have retained his acquaintance with the language of his people. On 

 the other hand it gives " Owbeg, her own name," showing clearly that it was taken 

 down from a woman so named, and this could be no other than the woman captured by 

 Cull in 1804. This I obtained from an old Newfoundland paper, thro^^gh the kindness 

 of Rev. W. Pilot. From the short time that she lived among the whites, we need noi be 

 surprised that it should be very imperfect, and probably there are errors in the printing. 



The second was taken down by the Rev. John Leigh from Demasduit. I have care- 

 fully compared it with the original MS., corrected some errors in several published 

 copies, but, from the indistinctness of the handwriting, I am uncertain about a few words. 

 Capt. Robinson's is the same, with a few additional words. These I have inserted and 

 marked (R). 



1 he third was compiled by Dr. King and transmitted by Mr. R. S. Latham to the Ethno- 

 logical Society. It was revised by Mr. Gatschet, with the assistance of Mr. J. P. Howley 

 of St. Johns.' The most valuable part of it was taken down by Mr. Cormack from Shan- 

 andithit. Not only was he a man of some scientific attainments, but he had better oppor- 

 tunities than any other inquirer, as she had lived for six years among the whites, a good 

 part of that time in his house, and had learned more English than any of her countrymen. 

 But of his notes have been preserved only the words under A and B in English, together 

 with the numerals and names of months. These are marked (C). The words taken by 

 Dr. King from Leigh's appear in the latter's list, and are omitted in this place. Those 

 marked (K) were obtained by Dr. King from sourc^es unknown to us. 



' See ' Transactions of Am. Phil. Society,' v. 22, 1885. 



