SEPTEMBER 199 



subjected to the fate of the words of all un- 

 lettered peoples, and were reduced to writing 

 in such form as were suggested by their sound 

 to English, French or Spanish ears, and were 

 often made unnecessarily clumsy by their spell- 

 ing. A certain wild beauty clings to the 

 syllables, properly inflected. It is easier to 

 say pond lily than 6kundunm6ge, but the 

 older word has a cool, marshy sound quite 

 in keeping with the still, shadowy waters, 

 haunted by heron and by kingfisher, in which 

 the white flowers open to the sun. The 

 " mountain-strolling lilies " of Meleager carry 

 their orange-coloured flame with the same 

 wild grace as the American musk6tipineeg, 

 and the word inninautig, the tree of trees, is 

 a delightful name for the sugar maple. Wild 

 strawberries have a most delicate flavour if we 

 call them ohdamin, and those dear little pink 

 blossoms, so loyal to the woods that they 

 almost always perish if taken from their 

 shelter, are sweet as spring beauties, but 

 sweeter far as miskodeed. 



Four aboriginal words have been adopted 

 by the scientific world in naming our native 

 plants catalpa, maize, or mahiz, yucca and 



