12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



this he may have referred to a few early names of towns preserved 

 in one of the condoHng" songs, but of which no further tradition 

 remains. Some reservation is necessary in this statement. 



AUTHORITIES ON L NGUAGE 



A number of accessible works treat the general subject of Iroquois 

 words, their composition and modifications, these having many 

 interesting features, some of which will be mentioned incidentally. 

 The leading ones to be remembered here are the lack of labials, 

 the use of prefixes and suffixes, and the position of the adjective. 



About 1675 Father Jacques Bruyas wrote a treatise on the radical 

 words of the Mohawk language, including a valuable lexicon, much 

 used in defining names. It dealt mostly with verbs and their 

 derivatives, and a synopsis of his grammatical scheme follows. 



There are four simple tenses, from which the others are formed : 

 infinitive, present indicative, the future of affirmation and the 

 negative. From the present the imperfect is formed by an addition 

 at the end. The preterit, terminating like the infinitive, the pluper- 

 fect, the future compounded with the preterit, are the cognate 

 tenses from the same paradigm. The pluperfect adds nen to the 

 preterit. The future of affirmation and the aorist present of the 

 potential mood terminate alike. The double future of negation is 

 like the indicative present. With one exception the tenses of the 

 optative do not draer from the potential mood and those of the 

 subjunctive are similar. 



Verbs whose infinitives end in a usually terminate the present 

 with OM, imperfect akoue, future en^ negative with anne. Gaienna, 

 to take, is an exception. Verbs in e have commonly the present in 

 e, imperfect ekoue, future eg, negative sere, seg or the. They add 

 tenses from several verbs and have some exceptions. 



Verbs in i, signifying plentitude, have the present in i, imperfect 

 mnen, future ig or ise^'e. Relatives ending in i have the present isk, 

 imperfect iskoue, future nien, negative nire. Ori and onni and 

 their compounds are exceptions. 



Verbs in aon have the present in as, imperfect askoue, future anne, 

 with some exceptions. Some have the imperfect kaouas, future kao, 

 negative ouasere. W may take the place of on in many cases. 

 Verbs in enon have the present in ens, imperfect enskoue, future 



