6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 26 
as the material embodied in the present paper. The work of trans- 
lating and explaining the texts was greatly facilitated by Cultee’s 
remarkable intelligence. After he had once grasped what was wanted, 
he explained to me the grammatical structure of sentences by means 
of examples, and elucidated the sense of difficult periods. This work 
was the more difficult as we conversed only by means of the Chinook 
jargon. It will be noticed that the periods of the later dictations are 
much more complex than those of his earlier dictations. 
The following pages contain nothing but the texts and translations. 
These collections of texts will, it is expected, be followed by a gram- 
mar and dictionary of the language, which will contain a comparison 
of all the known dialects of the Chinookan stock. 
The Kathlamet is that dialect of the Upper Chinook which was spoken 
farthest down the river. Its territory extended from Astoria on the 
south side and Grey’s Harbor on the north side of the river to Rainier. 
Cultee stated that above Kalama the pronunciation was slightly dif- 
ferent. He mentioned the following tribes as speaking the Kathlamet 
dialect: The Wa’qa-iqam of Grey’s Harbor; the 1a’egEnrmaxix’ about 
opposite Cathlamet (on the north side); the Kna’ecaLxix’, at the present 
town of Cathlamet; the La’qatala, about three miles above Oak point 
on the north side of the river; the ieta’méctix’, half a mile below the 
mouth of Cowlitz river; the ta’kjalama, at Kalama; the Té’iaqjotcoée, 
three miles above Oak point, on the south side of the river; the 
Kia’gulaq, two miles below Rainier; and the K1a’moix’, at Rainier 
Alphabet 
a, e, i, 0, u have their continental sounds (short). 
a, €, 1, 6, 0 long vowels. 
“4° ™" vowels not articulated, but indicated by position of the 
mouth. 
A, E, I, 0, U obscure vowels. 
in German Biir. 
aw in law. 
o in German voll. 
e in bell. 
iin hill. 
separates vowels which do not form diphthongs. 
al i in island, 
> O> O> & Bb: 
au ow in how. 
] as in English. 
ll very long, slightly palatized by allowing a greater por- 
tion of the back of the tongue to touch the palate. 
a posterior palatal 1; the tip of the tongue touches the 
alveoli of the lower jaw, the back of the tongue is 
pressed against the hard palate; sonant. 
