THE VERBAL INDEFINITE. 413 



E-ukshikisliani ktchinksh tem^shkash the rails having been abstracted by 



the Lake Indians, 35, 10. 

 mi 111! gt'-u stintish you arc dear to me; lit. "yours is the being loved 



by me." 



A combination of two of these verbals in one sentence is found in: sha 

 nen mashisli gish shapa they say he has become or is diseased, 140, 5. 



The verbal indefinite in -sham represents the possessive case But the 

 -am is not simply appended to the -sh of the verbal; it is a combination 

 of the pronoun sham, sam of them and the verbal indefinite. This will be 

 shown more at length in the Syntax, and I consider it sufficient to give 

 here one example to show that the subject referred to by sham (-am) always 

 stands in the plural number and differs from the subject of the main sen- 

 tence: P'laivvash shlea spii'nsham (for spunish sham) tiipakshash m'na the 

 Eagle saw that they had kidnapped his younger sister ; lit. "the Eagle saw the 

 act of theirs to kidnap his younger sister." 



The verbal indefinite in -shti, -sti is not often used, but is originally of a 

 locative import, and hence can be used in an additive function. Cf Syntax. 

 It is used in a causative sense in the following sentence taken from a Modoc 

 text: vudopka sha li'nk Ke'mushash n^nuk unk tchulish Aishisham tutashti 

 they heat Kemnsh for having taken away all the shirts belonging to Aishish. 



The verbal indefinite in -she' mi, -sham is purely temporal ; will be dis- 

 cussed in Syntax. 



The verbal indefinite in -shi, -si is temporal and local simultaneously ; will 

 be discussed in Syntax. 



The verbal desiderative in -shtka (or -shtkak) expresses a tendency to- 

 ward, a wishing for, a "going to be", a "being on the point of" the act or 

 state embodied in the verb, and occurs in intransitive as well as transitive 

 verbs. Grammatically speaking, it is the instrumental case of the verbal 

 indefinite. It is generally connected with the auxiliary gi to be, exist; gt 

 either stands separately after it, or becomes affixed to it in the shape of -k, 

 or is omitted altogether. Thus we can say: nil a puriuashtka gi I want to 

 drink, or nu a punuaslitkak, or nil a punuashtka, all of tliese forms being 

 equivalent to : nu a punuash shanahuli. The verb gi is necessary to com- 



