ON THE NORTH-WESTEKN TRIBES OF CANADA. 



249 



Two or three young Indians tried the strength of their eyesight. 

 They could count the prescribed dots at a distance of 28 feet. 



Language. 



I cannot give as full a report of the Sarcee language as I did of the 

 Blackfoot, for the reason that no one, so far as I could learn, outside the 

 Sarcee tribe has any knowledge of it. The missionary in charge had 

 only arrived a few weeks before, and though he knew the Blackfoot, and 

 through that medium could make himself understood by a few of the 

 people, he knew nothing whatever of Sarcee. "We were told that it was 

 an exceedingly difficult language to acquire, and full of gutturals ; others 

 said that it had no vowels in it; others that it was like a hen cackling. 

 Under these circumstances it was vain to expect to make out the gram- 

 matical rules of the language, but I thought I would do what I could to 

 collect a small vocabulary of words. A few of the people understood 

 Blackfoot, and some few others Cree, and through the medium of these 

 two languages I was able to collect the following Sarcee words and short 

 sentences : — 



YOCABUriART. 



Pronounce a and ct as the first and second a in larva, e as in they, 

 i as in pique, i as in pick, o as in note, it as in rule, ai as in aisle, au as 

 ou in bough, h guttural as in ich (German), g (a sound found also in the 

 Sioux language) pronounced like the Arabic ghain, a ghr sound ; tc like 

 ch in church, fi like the French nasal n in hon. 



