118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTETUTE. 



the Aryan as or es, is deticient in several tenses and moods, and these 

 are supplied, as in the Aryan, from another verb, meaning "to become.'' 

 This verb in Sahaptin is wits^isha, I become, which makes in the per- 

 fect witsash, I have become or been, (corresponding to the Latin fui, 

 from a root meaning to grow,) in the aorist, ivltsaia, I became or 

 was, and in the future wilsaia, I shall become or be, — all purely in- 

 flective forms. 



How completely the Sahaptin verb corresponds in meaning and 

 in usage to the Aiyan is shown by the examples given by Mr. Smith. 

 Thu3 the phrase " what I have said is true," reads in the Sahaptin : — 



ioh hah tsekakit ikuin hiwash 



that which I-have-said true it is, 



answering word for word, and inflection for inflection, to the Latin 

 " id quod dixi verum est." So again, — with a slight idiomatic 

 variation in the order of the words — a Sahaptin would say, for *' one 

 is about to go who is skilful," — 



naks hikutatasha ka, ipi icapsu hiwash 



one is-just-now-going who he skilful is. 



Of the immense wealth of inflections possessed by the Sahaptin 

 vei'b, some idea may be formed from the fact that the paradigm of the 

 verb " to see," in its primary or simple conjugation, occupied in ]\Ir. 

 Smith's grammar no less than forty-six i)ages of manuscript ; and this 

 did not ijticlude the six derived conjugations, each of which possesses 

 all the variations of the simple verb. It must not, however, be sup- 

 posed that the Sahaptin is limited merely to inflectional forms, and 

 that it has no capacity for agglutination. "Were this the case, it would 

 be far inferior to the Aryan languages, in which agglutination, or. 

 in better phrase, composition, i)lays a most important part. In fact, it 

 may be said to be chiefly in this cajtacity that the Aryan languages sur- 

 pass the Semitic. And it is deserving of remai-k that our admiration 

 is given to the Aryan languages in precisely the proportion in which 

 they possess this power of comi)Osition or agglutination. If we deem 

 the English, which can promptly manufacture at need such words as 

 railroad, steamboat, and firework, superior in the power of compact 

 expression to the French, which can only say cheinin defer, bateau d 

 vaj)eur, and feu d'artifice, we no less admit the much greater 



