448 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
to cultivate the soil have been attended with great success. They number about eight 
hundred souls. 
The Ponkas speak the same language, though forming a distinct tribe, and have their 
reservation on Ponka River, south of the Niobrara. They make some feeble attempts to 
cultivate the soil, and obtain thereby a partial support, but they are, for the most part, in 
their original wild condition, and owing to the almost entire absence of game from their 
borders, are most of the time in a state bordering on starvation. 
A number of vocabularies of the Omaha and Ponka language have been published by 
various writers, as Long, Prince Neuwied, Gallatin, &c., but no attempt has ever been 
made to work out its grammatical structure. A small pamphlet of perhaps sixteen pages 
was prepared some years ago by a gentleman connected with the Mission, containing a few 
words, phrases, and hymns, in the language, but inasmuch.as the English equivalents are 
not given, it is of no use to the student of general philology. 
VOCABULARY OF THE OMAHA LANGUAGE. 
A. blue, to. 
above, ma/-shi-a-ta. boat, man’-de. 
alive, nit/-a. ta-de’-i-ga-da, ship drawn by the wind. 
all, way-gi’-re. body, Zu’-ga. 
ankle, si-tali’-e. bog, nish-tash’-ta. 
arm, a. bone, wa-hi’. 
arrow, ma. bow, nan’-de. 
autumn, ta, } pb cain boy, nu-shing’-e. 
tah, 4 : bread, wa-mith’-ke. 
axe, man’-the-pe. breast, mang’-e. 
brother, wi-shen’-se, my elder brother. 
B. wi-thang’-e, my younger brother. 
burns, a’-ne, he burns. 
by, ka’-ha. 
ning’-ka-ha, by the shore. 
ath-ka/-de, by and by. 
back, nang’-ka. 
bad, pi’-a-Zi. 
bean, ham/’-bre-en-ge. 
bear, man’-¢u, grizzly bear. 
wa-tha’-be, black bear. 
beard, i/-hi. C. 
beaver, 7a’-be. call, ba, he calls. 
bird, wa-Zing’-a. cattle, te-tha’-be, black cattle. 
bison, te. chief, ni/-ka-ka-hi’, and nu’-da-ha-ga’. 
bitter, toli-a. claw, sha’-ge, hoof, claw. 
black, tha’-be. cloth, Ze-a-di-gra’, breechcloth. 
bladder, neli’-e, and nali’-e. coat, wo-na’-4i, thin coat. 
blood, wa’-mi. corn, wa-ta’-the. 
