10 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



The appearance of these Fragments^ under the title Notes sur la 

 Langue des Taensas, was followed in 1881 by seven supposed Taensa 

 songs in the original, unaccompanied by translations, printed at 

 Epinal under the title Gancionero Americano. A preface in Spanish 

 was inserted, however, in which it was claimed that the texts had been 

 collected in 1827 or 1828. This did not bear M. Parisot's name, but 

 on writing to the publisher M. Adam, who had received a copy of 

 the work, was referred to Parisot, pupil of the " Grand Seminaire de 

 Saint-Die." M. Adam then wrote to M. Ch. Leclerc, of the Mai- 

 sonneuve publishing house, and by his advice on the 8th of May, 1882, 

 he asked M. Parisot for the manuscripts in order to publish them in 

 the B ihliotheqiie Linguistlque Americaine. ]VI. Parisot, then aged 

 19 or 20, came to see M. Adam at Nancy in the course of the follow- 

 ing July ; in October he sent him the manuscript of the grammar and 

 the printing began. 



The article in the Revue and the pamphlet published at Epinal 

 excited only local interest, but the grammar " was wideh' circulated 

 and was acclaimed as a notable addition to our literature on the sub- 

 ject of Indian languages. The fact that Dr. A. S. Gatschet, a leading 

 student of American languages, furnished an introduction rendered 

 its acceptance all the more ready. In his work on Aboriginal 

 American Authors, published the following year, Brinton speaks 

 appreciatively of it and quotes one of the songs entire. In conunent- 

 ing on these songs he says : " Some of the songs of war and death are 

 quite Ossianic in style, and yet they appear to be accurate transla- 

 tions. The comparatively elevated style of such poems need not cast 

 doubt upon them" (pp. 48. 49). The comparison with Ossian was 

 perhaps more significant than the commentator at that time realized, 

 though even then he admitted that the Taensa songs were unusual. 



It was probably not long after this that the noted ethnologist began 

 to change his mind regarding them, but it was not until March, 1885, 

 that he came out against them with the direct charge of forgery. His 

 article appeared in the American Antiquarian for that month and 

 was entitled " The Taensa grammar and dictionary ; a deception 

 exposed." This attack bore so heavily against the part of the com- 

 pilation which embraced the Taensa songs that Adam made no 

 attempt to defend them, but in the three successive brochures which 

 he issued in reply tried to prove that all of the material, especiall}^ 

 the grammatical sections, had not been forged. These brochures were 

 entitled Le taensa a-t-il etc forge de toutes fiecesf Rejyonse a 

 M. Daniel Brinton,' Le taensa n^a jxis ete forge de toutes fieces., lettre 

 de M. Friedrich MUller a Lucien Adam; Dom Parisot ne Produira 

 pas le Manuscrit Taensa.^ lettre a M. Victor Henry. These brought 

 an answer from Brinton in the zimerican Antiqjiarian for September, 



" Grammaire ct Vocabulaire de la Langue Taensa, BihUoihiqnc Luiiiiiisluinc .\nHricainc, 

 IX, Paris, 1882. 



