214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Sassafras menagtvdkomis, Stove j^^^'^^^^^'^^^^'^n 



(scented tree). Sun-fish okwatashi. 



Spruce kownndak. Trolling-line odddji(j6kon . 



Sticks (for beating vice)., ■pamvjmatak. Water-lily okitnbuk. 



The Miesissagua vocabulary appears to contain but few non-Algon- 

 kin words. Owistoiia (blacksmith) appears to be an Iroquois loan- 

 word ; ndpani (flour) is but the French la farine Indianised ; bojon 

 (good day) the ordinary salutation, is the French bon jour. At 

 Scugog, however, very many English words such as knife, fork, table, 

 buttons, spoon, etc., are used by the Indians in ordinary conversation, 

 and they have forgotten many of their own words formerly in use. 

 'One Indian said they had no word for " tree," and several of them 

 iiad hard work in recollecting the words asked Irom them. In 

 response to enquiries as to the existence of a " children's language," 

 the writer succeeded in discovering only two words (used by the 

 children) which differed from the ordinary speech, viz. : tehteh (father) 

 and dodon (mother). The words, as a rule, ai'e strongly accented 

 especially when a monosyllabic, and there is sometimes a peculiar 



■drawl, as e.g. in the word for poi'cupine ka li . . . . k\ The 



short a and 6 are not very distinct, and both tend to become the u of 

 but; d and t are indistinct, the sound really made being a medial 

 between these, the same holding of j) and b, and g and h. A peculiar 

 sound is that of the pronominal prefix n as in n'teh (my heart). The 

 vocabulary contains a fair proportion of monosyllables and dis- 

 syllables, the former being radical words (in most cases) the meaning 

 and etymology not being appai-ent ; this holds also of many dissyl- 

 lables. Such are : — mukwa (bear), amlk (beaver), 7mikuk (box), 

 ondSk (crow), ddjig (fisher), dki (earth, etc.), 7nin (blueberry), n'os 

 <(my father), n'teh (my heart), nin (I), mang'k (loon), moons (moose). 

 Like other Indian language the Mississagua contains many of tliose 

 descriptive names which are of interest to the student of Onomato- 

 logy. Such are : — Debikiiis (moon = night sun), muskegamin (cran- 

 berry = marsh-fruit), okadak (sarsaparilla = leg-root), menagivakomis 

 (sassafras = scented tree), manistanis (sheep = hide not durable), shishi- 

 banwing (shot = duck-stones), oimikaki (frog = devoid of hair, or fur), 

 pewdbik (iron = it crumbles off), wabimotchichagwun (looking-glass = 

 where they see ghosts), otngioanibisan [rainbow = he (i.e., the Manitou) 

 -covers the rain with a mantle], etc. But few words appear to be of 



