574 Mr. Pickering on Rasles’ Dictionary. 
The Indian verbs, accordingly, partake of this character, and have specific 
forms applicable to the particular thing which is the object of them. Thus, for 
example, the verb to wash (under Laver in this Dictionary) appears in various 
forms according to the object and the person in question ; as, 
Nekesigsa, I wash my face. 
NekesesigSénan, 1 wash his face. 
Wekestretsa, 1 wash my hands. 
Nekesiretsénan, I wash his hands, ete. 
Similar examples may be found in various parts of the present work. 
5. The general and particular, or limited, Plural. The Indian languages 
generally, if not always, have two forms of the jirst person plural; the one being 
unlimited, like our own plural, and the other limited, or restricted to a particular 
number of persons. In the Delaware family, the general plural is denoted by the 
pronominal prefix ’, which imports, we in particular, our family, our nation, &c¢. 
But, when no such distinction is intended, the first person plural is denoted by k’. 
This division of the plural number was not understood till it was explained by Mr. 
Heckewelder in his Correspondence with Mr. Du Ponceau.* The latter also 
traced it out in the Massachusetts dialect, though it had not been mentioned by 
Eliot ; + and we have now, I think, proof of its being found in the Abnaki; for 
which the reader is referred to the word Corps, and some other articles in the 
present Dictionary. 
Many other observations might be made upon the philological results to be 
obtained from an attentive examination of the present Dictionary ; but the occasion 
does not admit of them. I will only add, that besides philological facts, we may 
derive from it no inconsiderable information of the history, habits of life, and 
modes of thinking, of the Indian inhabitants of this Continent. We see, for ex- 
ample, proof of their having had their first intercourse with our English ancestors, 
in the fact, that nearly all the common foreign words adopted by them are English, 
and not French; as, kass, cows, under ANIMAUX3 maiini, money, under ARGENT; 
igriskarnar, English-corn, under Bu& ; kabits, cabbage, under Cuovx ; pikess, 
pigs, under Cocuon, etc.; while their terms relating to religious worship are obvi- 
ously taken from the language of their French Catholic teachers, whose mode of 
worship has prevailed among them. Thus the present work, when examined with 
attention, will prove to be of no small value in the history of this remarkable people, 
as well as in the study of their languages. 
* Correspondence, p. 429. + Mr. Du Ponceau’s Notes to Eliot’s Indian Grammar, p. xix. 
