150 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



If the Indian had discovered iron, and learned 

 how to change it into steel, a thousand years 

 before America was discovered, he might well 

 have made a name for himself among civilized 

 nations. Their language was admirably calcu- 

 lated for all manner of literary purposes. It is 

 not a rude, harsh, barbarous tongue, but smooth 

 and soft, and immensely rich in words. 

 On this point Dr. Silas T. Rand says : 

 " The Micmac, like many, if not all, of the na- 

 tive American languages, is remarkable for its 

 copiousness, its regularity of declension and con- 

 jugation, its expressiveness, its simplicity of 

 vocables, and its mellifluousness ; in all of these 

 particulars and others it will not suffer in com- 

 parison with any of the most learned and pol- 

 ished languages of the world." 



Dr. Rand was not only learned in Micmac 

 but he was wonderfully acquainted with many 

 other languages, including Greek and Latin. 

 Our Indian, who thinks in his own speech and 

 talks in English, makes a rather awkward at- 

 tempt. The difficulty is this : he tries to trans- 

 late the arrangement of his words into something 

 equivalent in ours, but the whole structure and 

 grammar of his language bear no resemblance 

 to English; hence he makes such blunders as 

 the following : 



