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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 43 



the first place Iberville records that the Bayogoula called his ships 

 pinanis. evidently from the Choctaw word peni, ' canoe,' ' boat,'" while 

 an animal represented in their temple and evidently the opossum 

 is called clioucouacha^ i. e., cukuaca^ the Choctaw diminutive of 

 cukata^ 'opossum.'^ Gravier (1700) tells us that the Houma called 

 their sacred fire loiiak or loughcS which is, as we know, the Nvord for 

 'fire' in Choctaw, and finally the writer, as has been noted, was 

 enabled to collect about 80 words from an old Houma woman which 

 are little different from the equivalent Choctaw expressions. The cor- 

 rectness of most of these was confirmed by another old woman, yet 

 it is evident on comparing the list with their Choctaw equivalents 

 that some errors have crept in, owing to the defective memories of the 

 informants. Other variations may be dialectic. The words are as 

 follow^s : 



' Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 144. 



