xliv ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH. 



own languages are scarcely heard of on this hemisphere, but the annals of 

 the eastern parts of the globe make mention of such. 



Whenever it is shown that the language of some American people is 

 akin to the language of another, so that both are dialects of a common 

 linguistic famil}^, a more cogent proof of their common genealogic origin 

 is furnished than lies in a similarity of laws, customs, myths, or religion. 

 To decide the question of affinity between two languages is generally an 

 easy, but sometimes a very difficult task. When a relatively large number 

 of roots and affixes having the same function coincide in both, this argues 

 in favor of affinity. The coincidence of single terras in them is never for- 

 tuitous, but we have to find out whether such terms are loan words or 

 belong to the stock of words of the languages under process of investigation. 

 Other terms show an external resemblance which is not based on real iden- 

 tity of their radicals, but only on a deceptive likeness of signification. 



From all this the reader will percei\'e that we can not ex2)eet to steer 

 clear of shoals and breakers in determining by the aid of language the 

 affinities of our Klamath Indians. But the inquiries below, whether suc- 

 cessful or not, will at least aid future somatologists in solving the problem 

 whether linguistic areas coincide or not with racial areas upon the Pacific 

 coast between the Columbia River and the Bay of San Francisco. In 

 making these investigations we must constantly bear in mind that the track 

 of the migrations was from north to south, parallel to the Pacific coast, 

 which is sufficiently evidenced by the progress of some Selish, Tinne, 

 Sahaptin, and Shoshoni tribes in a direction that.deviates but inconsiderably 

 from a meridional one. 



To establish a solid basis for these researches, a list of the Pacific coast 

 linguistic families is submitted, which will assist any reader to judge of the 

 distances over which certain loan words have traveled to reach their present 

 abodes. The country from which a loan word has spread over a number 

 of other family areas is often difficult to determine, because these languages 

 have not all been sufficiently exploited. The families below are enumerated 

 according to the latest results of investigation. Some of them may in the 

 future be found to be dialects of other stocks. The Californian tribes have 

 l)een mapped and descril)ed in Stephen Powers's "Tribes of California"; 

 Contributions to North American Ethimlouv, Vol. III. 



