REVIEWS — THE SANDWICH ISLANDS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 451 



justly animadYerts on the reason given by Mr. Baraga in his grammar 

 for the dubitative form of the Indian verb, by which, what an Indian 

 thoroughly believes to be true is sometimes expressed in a form 

 {doog for the indicative, an wan for the subjunctive) expressive of 

 some degree of uncertainty. This Mr. Baraga traces to the Indians' 

 habitual want of truth in their intercourse with one another. "We 

 think it quite capable of the very opposite interpretation, namely, 

 that an Indian is so much afraid of stating what he does not know "to 

 be the case, that he has invented a form of speech which enables him 

 to keep considerably within the line that divides truth from falsehood. 



It seems to have escaped the notice of both Mr. Schoolcraft and 

 Mr. Baraga that a similar usage holds in Attic Greek where the 

 dubitative particle av with the optative mood is used where no doubt 

 is intended to be implied {ovk av ^euyot?, you will not escape), and we 

 are not aware that even the Roman satirists ever ascribed this usage 

 to the proverbial untruthfulness of the Greeks. In fact the Algonquin 

 dubitative form is merely the formula credendi, or mode of expressing 

 belief as distinguished from personal knowledge. 



In conclusion, we have to express our regret that a work coming out 

 under such auspices as that, the two first volumes of which have drawn 

 forth the above remarks, should be so incorrect both in principle and 

 detail, especially as we are aware that from the circumstance of its 

 having received the imprimatur of the United States Government, it is 

 looked on as an authority in all that refers to Indian literature and 

 language. Longfellow, for example, has much injured the effect of his 

 otherwise beautiful poem Hiawatha by the many errors into which 

 he has fallen in the Indian words that he has worked into it, chiefly, 

 it would appear, from having taken Mr. Schoolcraft as his guide. 



F. A. O'M. 



The Sandwich Islands Monthly Magazine. January to May, 1856. 



A. Fornander, Honolulu. 

 The New Era, and Argus. Honolulu, 1857. 

 The Victoria Gazette. Vancouver's Island, 1858. 



The progressive diffusion of the language, the social habits, and the 

 elements of freedom of the Anglo-Saxon race, justly awakens fresh 

 wonder and admiration with every new manifestation ; and the peri- 



