APPENDIX H. — ETHNOLOGY. 277 



EEMAEKS ON THE PRECEDING VOCABULARIES, BY PROFESSOR 

 W. W. TURNER. 



Of the two vocabularies here given, the Comanche agrees very closely 

 with that obtained by Mr. Robert S. Neighbors, Indian agent in Texas, 

 and published by H. S. Schoolcraft, in his History, Condition, and Pros- 

 pects of the Indian Tribes, vol. II, p. 494, et seq.; the slight discrepan- 

 cies which present themselves between the two being nearly all owing 

 to the different manner in which the same sounds are caught and 

 represented by different persons. The ethnological affinities of the 

 Comanches are well known. They are the most important tribe of 

 Indians in Texas, and constitute a portion of the great Shoshonee or 

 Snake family, which have been led in pursuit of the buffalo far to the 

 south of their congeners. 



The vocabulary of the Witchitas, though less complete, is more 

 interesting, as being the first ever published, as far as I am aware. A 

 pretty extended examination, however, has not enabled me to discover 

 an analogy between it and any other aboriginal tongue with which we 

 have the means of comparison. It is true, that in Captain Marcy's lists 

 the words for Osage, friend, mule, bear, prairie-dog, are the same in 

 this language as in the Comanche ; but the entire dissimilarity of the 

 two vocabularies in other respects, shows that the words in question 

 must have been adopted from one language into the other, or from a 

 common foreign source. Thus it is evident tbat the Comanche name 

 for prairie-dog is borrowed from the Witchita, while the name for mule 

 has been taken by both from the Spanish." The ethnological position 

 of the Witchitas, then, remains still to be determined. 



