APPENDIX. 497 



signifies blunt or lumpy -headed arrows; assoivaim, is the barbed 

 arrow. Kivonaudj kweeweezains means, not simply *' pretty boy," 

 h\xt jiT^iiy ^itil^ ^oy ; and there is no mode of using the word boy 

 but in this diminutive form, the word itself being a derivative 

 Jceivewe coryugal^ with the regular diminutive in ains. Onaunee- 

 goozzin^ embraces the pronoun, verb, and adjective, he thou cheerful. 

 In the last phrase of the examples, "man" is rendered men {inin- 

 eeiouy) in the translation, as the term man cannot be employed in 

 the general plural sense it conveys in this connection in the ori- 

 ginal. The word " whiskey" is rendered by the compound phrase, 

 ishkvdawaubo, liiQvaWj fire-liquor ^ a generic for all kinds of ardent 

 spirits. 



These aberrations from the literal terms will convey some con- 

 ceptions of the difference of the two idioms, although, from the 

 limited nature and object of the examples, they will not indicate 

 the full extent of the difference. In giving anything like the 

 spirit of the original, much greater deviations in the written forms 

 must appear. And in fact, not only the structure of the language, 

 but the mode and order of thought of the Indians is so essentially 

 different, that any attempts to preserve the English idiom, to give 

 letter for letter, and word for word, must go far to render the 

 translation pure nonsense. 



2. Varied as the adjective is in its changes, it has no compara- 

 tive inflection. A Chippewa cannot say that one substance is 

 hotter or colder than another, or of two or more substances un- 

 equally heated, that this or that is the hottest or coldest, without 

 employing adverbs or accessory adjectives; and it is accordingly 

 by adverbs and accessory adjectives that the degrees of com- 

 parison are expressed. 



Pimmaudizziwin^ is a very general substantive expression, indi- 

 cating tlie tenor of heing or hfe. Izzheicdhizzhvin^ is a term near 

 akin to it, but more appropriately applied to the acts^ conduct^ 

 manner^ or personal dejwriment of Vfe. Hence the expressions — 



Nem binimaudizziwin, My tenor of life. 



Ke bimniaudizziwin, Thy tenor of life. 



O pimmaudizziwin, His tenor of life, &c. 



JJia dizhewiiVjizziwin, My personal deportment. 



Ke dizhewlibizziwin, Thy personal deportment. 



Izzhewiibizziwin, His personal deportment, &c. 



32 



