568 Mr. Pickering on Rasles’ Dictionary of 
lowing: “ Taken after the Fight at Norridgewalk among Father Ralle’s Papers, 
and given by the late Col. Heath to Elisha Cooke Esq. 
Norridgewalk Language.” It is understood to have been presented by Mr. Cooke 
Dictionary of the 
to the Library of Harvard University, to which valuable collection it now belongs. 
Some years ago I gave a bibliographical account of it, which was publish- 
ed in the Memoirs of the American Academy, as an Appendix to an Essay on 
a Uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America; to’ which 
the reader is referred.* 
This Dictionary is now printed from the original in Father Rasles’ handwriting, 
and with as much exactness as was practicable. His abbreviations of words are 
retained, though, in all cases where an unpractised reader of French or Indian would 
be at a loss, they are explained by printing the abbreviated word or phrase at full 
length, in brackets, immediately after the abbreviation. 
Lest the numerous errors of orthography and accentuation in the French part 
of the work should be ascribed to the carelessness or ignorance of the Editor, it is 
proper to apprize the reader, that such of them as are properly errors, and not the 
authorized orthography of the age when Rasles compiled his work, have been 
suffered to remain, from a desire of scrupulously following the manuscript. 
It should be farther observed, that the leading words of each article, which are 
printed in capitals and between brackets, have been added by the Editor, in order 
to lessen, in some degree, the extreme inconvenience which would have been 
experienced in using the work without such aid. In all other instances, also, every 
addition by the Editor is printed in brackets. 
The manuscript was evidently begun upon the plan of first filling up the right hand 
pages of the book, and reserving the opposite ones for subsequent additions. Most 
of these blank pages were afterwards either partly or entirely filled with additional 
matter; many of them, however, still remain blank. This state of the MS. will 
explain to the reader the reason why the paging in the margin of the present 
edition is double, as [2, 3.], &c. As the additional words on the left hand pages 
belonged to different places on the right hand pages and required to be inserted under 
their respective heads, it would have been impracticable, and contrary to the author’s 
own plan, to have printed the pages consecutively ; it was thought best to consider 
the corresponding right and left pages as constituting a single entire page, and 
" Mem. Amer. Acad. vol. iv. p. 358, First Series. 
