I the Mandan Indians, with 



ni-a-seh-tosh, you, &c. 



of you. 



i-o-na-seh-tosh, thei/, &c. 



i-sek-U (imp.), do. 



wa-wa-ka-pu-s6sh, ) I paint or write, 



nu-ka-pu-sosh, we, &c. 



wa-kapu-5sh, \ or am painting. 



ni-a-pu-sosh, you, &c. 



tha-ka-pu-s6sh, thou, &c. . 



i-a-pu-sosh, they, &c. 



in-ka-pu-sosh, he, &c. 



nu-nomp-sha-pu-sosh, we both, . 



wa-ka-pus-tosh, / will paint or write. 



i-a-ka-pus-tosh, they, &c. 



ma-ka-Dus-tosh, thou, &c. 



wa-ka-pu-se, a painting or writi 



in-ka-pas-tosh,/..,&c. 



ka-pus-ta, (imp.) w'W^^. . 



nu-ka-pu»-tosh, we, &c. 



a-he-ka-pus.ta, (imp.) write, ah 



ni-a-tha-ka-pus-tosh, you, &c. 



you. 



Impersonal Vkrbs. 



kap-kesh, it snows. 



ktan-bosh, it freezes. 



kap-ke-kdsh, it will snow. 



ktan-losb, it will freeze. 



kap-ke-a-raan-ka-h5sh, it is snowing 



ra-pa-na-iusb, it hails. 



all the while. 



ra-pa-nak-tusb, it will hail. 



ra-she-de-husb, it thaws or melts. 



he-i-ni-bush, it thunders. 



ra-sbe-deh-tush, it will thaw or melt. 





The most reliable account of the manners and customs of the 

 Mandans which has ever been published may be foimd in 

 a magnificently illustrated work entitled "Eeise des Priusea 

 Maximilian zu Wied. 2 vols. 4to." The Prince of Neu Wied 

 resided one winter with this tribe, and obtained his information 

 under the most favorable circumstances, and therefore I regard it 

 as entitled to great confidence. In the same work may be found 

 an extended vocabulary — the only one ever published of this 

 language, of any great value for philological purposes — vyith 

 some interesting grammatical observations. The great flexibil- 

 ity of the Indian languages, and the extent to which combina- 

 tions may be made, have induced some authors to complicate 

 greatly the declension of the nouns and adjectives and the con- 

 jugation of the verbs. Sometimes the moods and tenses of verbs 

 are multiplied to an almost indefinite extent, and the six cases 

 of the Latin given to the substantives. I do not dispute the ac- 

 curacy of any author on this subject ; but simply say that I have 

 not yet been able to find a grammatical system so complete m 

 any of the Indian languages of the Northwest. So far as I can 

 ascertain there are three moods to the verbs, indicative, impera- 

 tive, and infinitive; three tenses, past, present, and future; and 

 I cannot find that the simple form of the verb expresses more. 

 Other tenses are formed by the union of different words. More 

 thorough investigations hereafter will decide this matter. 



The following examples are taken from the Prince Neu Wied s 

 great work, in which he has treated of a number of the Indian 

 languages of the Northwest. The orthography is slightly changed 

 to adapt it to the system which I have adopted in my Me- 



