January 26, 1894. 
invented and used by my brother-in-law, Mr. Philip E. 
Brodt, now a student in Columbia College, when he was 
about five years of age and living in Dansville, N. Y. 
While several of the ordinary forms of secret language 
were known to the children of that town, this language, 
so far as is known, was a pure invention of Philip, devised 
probably for his own amusement. No one spoke it but 
himself, though other members of the family learned to 
understand it. The boy spoke ordinary English like the 
other children, and when five years old he spoke fluently 
this language in addition, when it pleased him to do so. 
Mr. Brodt still remembers the language, and has kindly 
transcribed in English and his own language some verses 
which he was in the habit of repeating at that time. 
Hillie wad pa urpmle onkey 
Climbup ing ye allsto wick; 
Sen he whucked pe thaint aff oll 
Mit ade dim heathsi lyck. 
En whin dys hiing clour he hasped 
Me thonkey in hand his 
Band ade warefell wo tearth frand iends 
Wand ent tino ba ettler and. 
Mo nore she’ll hoot lis hittsle ister 
Ith whis guden woon, 
Mo nore pe’ll hull ke thittty’s ail 
Mand ake yer howl fun for. 
Ke thittty’s ail stow nands strup aight 
Ge thun lis aid saide, 
Me thonky cloes not dimb mo such 
Lince sittle Dillwie ied. 
Willie had a purple monkey 
Climbing up a yellow stick; 
When he sucked the paint all off 
It made him deathly sick. 
When in his dying hour he clasped 
The monkey in his hand 
And bade farewell to earth and friends 
And went into a better land. 
No more he'll shoot his little sister 
With his wooden gun, 
No more he'll pull the kitty’s tail 
And make her yowl for fun. 
The kitty’s tail now stands up straight, 
The gun is laid aside, 
The monkey does not climb so much 
Since little Willie died. 
While the verses have the appearance and sound of 
gibberish, it will be seen that the modified words are 
formed from those in the original by simple transpositions 
of the consonantal sounds beginning adjoining words or 
syllables, and sometimes of similar vowel or syllabic 
interchange, with a few minor modifications apparently for 
euphony. H. L. Taytor. 
New York. 
Habits of Gray Squirrels. 
I was much interested in reading the article by Ray 
Greene Huling in Scrence of Dec. r because it gives posi- 
tive testimony to what I have always believed in regard to 
the habit of parent gray squirrels taking their young to 
places of safety. Some years ago I and my companions 
had a mania for raising young gray squrrels. In our hunts 
in the woods we found that not more than one good nest 
out of five contained any young, and that if we did not 
secure the young when first found they were always gone 
when we came again. We explained the great numbers 
of empty nests by saying that they were to put the young 
in when the home nest was discovered. 
I have raised several young gray squirrels. They were 
taken from the nest when they were still blind and their 
SCIENCE. 51 
tails had not yet become bushy. I fed them with milk by 
means of a glass pipette, holding one end in my mouth to 
regulate the flow. I found this apparatus much more satis- 
factory than spoons or bottles with perforated corks and 
quills. 
The fabits of one of my pets in particular were in- 
structive. This squrriel was taken from the nest in the 
fall, and after having learned to eat solid food was allowed 
to run at large in the house most of the time during the 
winter, often being carried for hours in the pockets of 
some member of the family. In the spring when the doors 
and windows were open the squirrel was allowed to run 
about the place. In the course of a month or so he had 
built sex different nests in as many different trees and 
vines around the place—one in the honeysuckle on the 
front piazza, one in the Virginia creeper that covers one 
side of the house, and the others in the spruce trees on 
the lawn. During all this time he was tame enough to be 
coaxed into the hands by the offer of nuts, etc. As the 
weather grew warmer our pet became quite a nuisance 
frem his habit of carrying off handkerchiefs and lawn 
neckties with which to line his numerous houses, and 
from his making a store-house of the bedroom next his 
nest, On one occasion actually storing a lot of nuts between 
the sheets of the bed. 
For two or three days we noticed that our pet was 
making a very peculiar noise, something like a scold, but 
yet not a scold, and that at the same time he (or she) 
seemed very restless. 
At the end of that time he disappeared, and as our 
neighbors, who lived near a grove about half a mile from. 
us, reported seeing a squirrel which came close to them 
to be fed, we had no doubt it was ours, which had gone 
to the grove in search of a mate. 
In robbing the nest of the gray squirrel I do not remember 
to have seen the old squirrels in or near the nest when I 
had climbed up to it. My experience with the flying squirrel 
was different. I frightened an old flying squirrel from her 
nest and while feeling in the nest for the young, the old 
one actually came back to the nest, and on my climbing 
away from the nest she entered. This was repeated three 
times. I finally put the nest in my soft felt hat, and when 
the mother went in I closed it up and took her and the 
three young ones to my house. The young were after- 
ward drowned by the upsetting of a cup of water in their 
cage, but not until after the mother had nursed them for 
three days in their captivity. I afterward got three more 
young flying squirrels and raised them on milk. When 
grown they were very tame and affectionate, but were not 
as lively and playful as the young grays. 
D. T. MARSHALL. 
Metuchen, N. J., Dec. 14, 1893. 
Sassafras Trees. 
I was much interested and rather amused by a letter in 
Science, Jan. 5, from W. J. Quick, on the sassafras, in 
which he says that ‘‘ it almost attains the dignity of a tree 
in size.” 
I should like him to see some specimens on Long Island, 
although they are, as well as all large trees, fast disappear- 
ing so near New York. 
When I first came here, in the woods were sassafras trees 
that held their own for size with the oaks and hickory ; 
although the trunks were not quite so large their heads 
were held well up with their more pretentious neighbors. 
I have taken the logs to mill and had them sawed for 
lumber and used it for many purposes and was greatly 
pleased with it in places where strength and lightness were 
desirable. I call to mind a set of sassafras hay shelvings 
