Ixviii ETHNOGKAPHIO SKETCH. 



stage before the publication of thu present volume. Even the author expe- 

 rienced considerable difficulties before he could pass beyond that limit. 

 When he reached the reservation ag-ency he found not over three or four 

 individuals who were able to speak a tolerable English, and the knowledge 

 of this tongue is absolutely necessary to any one who aspires to the posi- 

 tion of an interpreter of his own language in those parts. The Indians 

 were nearly all pure bloods, and most of them knew scarcely more than a 

 dozen Englisli terms. Many could converse in Chinook jargon, but the 

 majority, especially the females, were not acquainted even with this preca- 

 rious means of intercourse. Indeed, these people must be slow in accpiir- 

 ing an Arvan language like English, for it presents so many character- 

 istics entirel}' opposite to those of Klamath. English is not provided with 

 reduplication, prefixes of form, nor with the multiple suffixes of Klamath ; 

 it differs from it also by its more complex syntactic structure, its imperfect 

 nominal intlectioii, by its distinctive form for the nominal plural, the grada- 

 tion of the adjective and adverb effected by suffixation, its personal inflec- 

 tion of the verb, and a long array of irregular and auxiliary verbs. 



• Thus it will be easily perceived that the obtaining of correct and reli- 

 able ethnographic and linguistic information in such a tribe is fraught with 

 many difficulties. Sometimes it is practicable to get the terms for visible 

 objects by making gesture signs or by pointing at the objects, but it just as 

 often misleads ; and if the investigator has to do with people who know no 

 other language than their own, he must revise his notes with many of them 

 before he can place any trust in what he has written down from dictation. 

 The Indians and mixed bloods who have made some progress in the acquisi- 

 tion of English pronounce /as p, v as b, r as I — are modeling Enghsh after 

 their own language, using lie for our he, she, it, they, him, her, them ; all this 

 being hu'k, hu't, InVnk for them. They do not know how to use our conjiuic- 

 tions, a defect which makes all the tales, myths, and other textual informa- 

 tion unintelligible. The only means of obtaining results is to pick out the 

 best people from the crowd and to train them for awhile for the pui-pose 

 wanted, initil they are brought so far as to feel or understand the scope of 

 the investiiiator. Women will I)e found more useful than men to inform 

 him about in\ths, animal stories, the iiathei'inj'' of ve^etabh' food, house- 



