

NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. 567 



, thy lather asoinak, your father 

 ana/., hi* litthrr 



i7.-i/i, in\ hi. 1 i'1/oknn, our house 



mi/kin, thy li> n.tnhnii (?) your house 



, his house _/wW.-.", their house 



N E T E L A. 

 , star pi. sfilion 



The following words appear to be also in the plural, with the possessive my prefixed ; 

 nopii/nm,f\<'s (my); nanakum, cars; nikiiniltun, checks; mttukalam, hands ; 



.i, my house tfomki, our house 



owt a&i, thy house omom omki, your house 



poki, his house ompomki, their house 



wty, my boat t^orni?., our boat 



ow omi;c, thy boat omom omif., your boat 



ompomijn (qu. pomi/.), his boat ompomif., their boat 



The similarity which exists between many words in these two languages, and in the 

 Shoshoni, is evident enough from a comparison of the vocabularies. The resemblance 

 is too great to be attributed to mere casual intercourse; but it is doubtful whether the 

 evideni-c which it ulllirds will justify us in classing them together as branches of the same 

 family. The fact that the Oomanches of Texas speak a language closely allied to, if not 

 identical with that of the Shoshonees, is supported by testimony from so many sources, 

 that it can hardly be doubted. 



REMARKS ON THE VOCABULARIES. 



The list of words was intended to be the same as that adopted by Mr. Gallalin, in his 

 Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America; but some omissions and variations have 

 been made for different reasons. Among others, the words for God and Evil Spirit have 

 been omitted, because it was found that these languages (at least, the first ten of which 

 vocabularies were made) possessed no proper indigenous terms for these ideas. Since 

 they have been taught by the whites to speak of a good and evil principle, they designate 

 them by compound terms, drawn usually from the relative situations which they have 

 learned to assign to them, in the heavens above and in the infernal legions. Thus, in 

 the Selish language, God is expressed by Nitiste-po/.po/.6t, or " the Old Man above," 

 and the evil spirit by hit :ho "bad below." In the Sahaptin they have, in like 



manner, akdm-kiniko and inimkiniko, meaning, the one above, and the one below. 



As has been before remarked, all the vocabularies are not to e regarded as equally 

 authentic and accurate. Those of the Selish, Skitsuish, Piskwaus, Sahaptin, Walawala, 

 and Waiilatpu, may be looked upon as correct, having been taken down with the assistance 



