CH.Vn.] LANGUAGE OF THE NATIVES. 113 



eyes started from their heads before such native politeness 

 would have occurred to them. 



Mr. Sutton, chief engineer, took his camera oil shore, and 

 succeeded in taking several excellent stereoscopic pictures 

 of the village, and its inhabitants. The people readily 

 acceded to the desire that they should sit, and several 

 picturesque groups were formed, some of which were suc- 

 cessfully fixed by the camera : of course it was very dif&cult 

 to keep them aU quiet, and impossible to make them com- 

 prehend the necessity of absolute stillness during the critical 

 moments. The result, however, was in several instances 

 very satisfactory. 



The attempt to learn some of their words, and to form as 

 good a vocabulary* of their language as the time would 

 permit, was met by perfect good will on their part; and 

 many words, as weU as their mode of counting, were 

 obtained, chiefly from the women, who appeared to take 

 considerable interest in imparting the information. Con- 

 siderable amusement, too, was excited by our mistakes in 

 pronunciation, etc., and our efforts elicited a considerable 

 show of intelligence on their paxt. We found the women 

 much more serviceable than the men for this pm'pose, 

 chiefly on account of their clear pronunciation, which was 

 decidedly more distinct than that of the men. In 

 all cases, the attempt of the women to pronounce Eng- 

 lish words was more successful than that of the men. 

 The word "flint," for instance, being given them, a man 

 would not approach it nearer than plin-iss, while the women 

 at once said fil-lint. The voice of the women was remark- 

 ably agreeable, having a plaintiveness and softness which 



* This vocabulary will le found in an Appendix at the end of the 

 volume. 



