24 



tables is less convenient. It will be seen that for this reason 

 the arrangement of the words is somewhat modified, and that 

 the author moreover has found it necessary to add the said General 

 part> in order to complete the tables. The "Special part* , as 

 we will call the tables, according to the plan of the sched- 

 ules is limited to certain classes of concrete ideas, and there- 

 fore compared with that of a dictionary it must be deficient 

 even in several principal points. It is also for the translation 

 of words expressing more abstract ideas that the affixes and the 

 flexional endings chiefly are required. How this is effected 

 will also briefly be shown in the general part, but at the same 

 time the writer still must refer to the linguistic sections of the 

 first volume, viz Grammar, affixes and stemwords. 



In looking over the vocabularies , above all it must be 

 remembered that of the difference which instantly is observed 

 between the dialects the far predominating majority is due to 

 the heterogenous orthography and the imperfections of appre- 

 hending and rendering what originally was heard from the natives. 

 In the first Volume are mentioned the letters that have been 

 applied, and the confusion arising from the want of rules and 

 consistency in regard to them (p. 40 45). Secondly attention 

 has been called to the influence of the peculiar construction of 

 words and sentences, totally unknown to the foreign inquirers. 

 To these inconveniences must be added the occasional faults 

 in their questions, especially as the language by signs usually 

 was resorted to. The foreign investigator, in pointing first at 

 his own, then at his companious body, has asked about beard 

 and head>, but as answers received the words for respectively 

 "thy mouth and my hair ; mistakes of this kinds are frequently 

 recognised in the vocabularies. If this be the case in regard 

 to visible objects, the lack of tolerably sufficient information of 

 course is still more felt in trying to compile groups of the most 

 necessary designations of more abstract or spiritual ideas 



It follows of itself that in the present considerations we 



