136 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



had severally resided for years. The attention of many of them had been arrested 

 by peculiarities in the classification of kindred, but the subject, from its very nature, 

 was without the range of their investigations. But with native assistance this class 

 of men possess peculiar qualifications for reaching the details of the system. The 

 most perfectly executed schedules in the tables were furnished by the American 

 Home and Foreign Missionaries. On the other hand, the rudest Indian is familiar 

 with the system of his own nation, having used it constantly throughout its entire 

 range from early childhood. He will follow you through the several branches 

 of each line with but little embarrassment if you can manage to engage him in the 

 work. It requires experience, as well as a knowledge of the Indian character, to 

 hold a native to a protracted labor of such a tedious character, and to overcome 

 his aversion to continuous mental exertion. He is, also, suspicious of literary 

 investigations unless he understands the motive which prompts them ; and sensitive 

 to ridicule, when their peculiar usages are sought, from his knowledge of their 

 great unlikeness to our own. After answering a few questions he may abruptly 

 turn away and refuse to be interrogated further unless his interest is awakened by 

 a sufficient inducement. It was not always possible to complete a schedule without 

 consulting the matrons of the tribe. They are skilled in relationships beyond the 

 males, and can resolve, with facility, questions of remote consanguinity, if the 

 person is described with sufficient accuracy to show who is intended. A sketch of 

 the incidents connected with the procurement of such of the schedules as were 

 worked out by the writer in the Indian country would furnish a number of singular 

 illustrations of Indian character. 



Another fact will become apparent upon a close examination of the table, namely, 

 the near approach of the terms of relationship to each other in the several dialects 

 of the same stock-language ; or, in other words, the small amount of dialectical 

 change these words have undergone, as compared with other words in the published 

 vocabularies of the same dialects. This was a matter of no slight surprise to the 

 author. It may be accounted for in part by the constant use of these terms in 

 every family, and among the members of different families which would tend to 

 preserve uniformity of pronunciation ; but the chief reason is that these dialects, in 

 reality, are much nearer to each other than is shown by the ordinary vocabularies. 

 The greater portion of the schedules in Table II attached to Part II were 

 filled out by the writer, using the same notation, and after hearing the words, or 

 terms of relationship, many times repeated by native speakers. This, of itself, 

 would tend to keep the amount of dialectical variation within its actual limits. On 

 the contrary, the published vocabularies were made by different persons, using 

 notations not uniform, and in many cases none at all, which, of itself, would tend 

 to exaggerate the amount of change. The words in the table are also given with 

 the pronoun my in combination with the root, which in Indian languages is a 

 matter of much importance where the words are to be used for philological pur- 

 poses. The pronoun my or mine, if not in every case inseparable, enters so con- 

 stantly into combination with terms of a personal kind, and with names for objects 

 which are personal, that a very marked change is produced in the word itself 

 when the pronominal form is changed. The following may be taken as illustrations : 



