DORSEY-swANTON] THE BILOXI AND OFO LANGUAGES 35 



5-6. md .... nixki. This reads, "Because the chief did that to 

 me (i. e., scolded me), he thought that I ought not to see the water," but 

 the better rendering is, "The chief said that to me because he thought 

 that I ought to keep away from the water." 



6. amaioo, i. e., ama a/wo. 



9. hd^na^ archaic for eke. 



10. tctdlJce iya'^hi'^ ki inanki wo, given as meaning, "Why do you 

 sit there crying?" So, Tdid/iikl ayinkxyihi hi inanki wo, "Why do 

 you sit there laughing?" As inanM is the 2d sing, of -the classifier 

 (denoting continuous action) instead of xeJte^ "to sit," the exact force 

 of hi before this classifier is not plain. 



12. teak tiduwi xa wo, archaic for teak tiduwi xya. 



17. Exhia jyotckana, "the Ancient of Black-headed Buzzards," iden- 

 tical with Ilexkanadi in 37, 7. 



18. Hind-he instead of ind-he; so, haxeyetu (22) for axeyetu. Nix- 

 uxw ya^, in full, nlxiixwi ya^.^ as in 23. 



21. xiy 6>", contracted from xi ya'^ <?". 



22. kana used where kane might have been expected. 



22. kananki, "sitting in the past." Compare kane, "moving or 

 standing in the past," and ^'flj-mafiZ:^ "reclining in the past" — these 

 three being past forms of nankl, 7ie, and manki. 



25. peti-ka'^, "into or out of the fire." 



26. ayi^Mndtce-k id^-k taho, probably contracted from ayi^kindtc& 

 ka'^ ide kd^ taho. 



33. ani nitd^xti- ka'^ w& dedi, "he went into the very large water," 

 is better than, "when the water was very large;" wahe kldedi^ "she 

 cried out aloud, or forcibly," rather than, "she cried out and started 

 home," for the latter is the meaning of klde d^xa. 



TRANSLATION 



There was a man who was killing all the fish. One day he would 

 kill many fish and fill his boat with them quite to the top, and the 

 next morning when he went to the water he filled his boat half full. 

 At length a very large fish came to the surface of the stream and thus 

 reproved the man: " When you wish to eat fish, you ought not to kill 

 more than two or three. As it is, you are killing all of my people." 

 On hearing this the man departed. On reaching his home he thought, 

 "The chief of the fishes said that to me because he thought that I 

 ought to keep awa}^ from the water." So he went to another place. 

 On arriving there, he went to a house in which sat a woman crying. 

 He stood looking at her through a crack in the house. At length 

 he said to her, "Open the door," but it was altogether in vain. She 

 paid no attention to him. Then he said, "I am just like an ant." He 

 became that small, and crept through a very tiny crack. When he 

 got within, he said to her, "Why do you sit here crying?" 



