in.] SICHUANA LANGUAGE. 107 



History;" and Dr Pritchard, in the volume before quoted, 

 both discuss the influence of the ancient Egyptian lan- 

 guage on African dialects in general. Dr Livingstone says 

 of this influence with reference to Sichuana: 



" In believing that there exists a resemblance between 

 the African languages and the ancient Egyptian, we are 

 guided by affinity in structure. There has been nothing 

 done until now to fix the former, while the latter appears 

 before us unchanged in its state of primitive development, 

 though thousands of years old. The system, however, of 

 affixes, prefixes, formation of the verb, &c, which may be 

 said to form the scaffolding of the two languages, continues 

 essentially the same. A remark of Dr Lepsius, quoted in 

 vol i. p. 276 of the Chevalier Bunsen's work, "that the 

 vowel forming the termination of certain polysyllabic 

 Egyptian words, in Coptic always forms part of the sound 

 of the first syllable," seems to contain the germ of the 

 system of signs now so largely developed in Sichuana. 

 Reduplication, in order to impart intensity, is also perpetu- 

 ally employed, thus: ma, mother; mamaisa, to nurse, to 

 comfort; tlola, to remain; tlolatlola, remain some time; 

 tlogo, the head; tlogotlogo, the heads of the people = the 

 elders ; or in the following ditty spoken to the fire in kind- 

 ling it : — 



fire 1 catch-catch 1 wood I brothers J mine I they I tremble-tremble 

 molelo I cuara-cuara | logon | bo j nake j bo j roroma-roroma 



= fire, do catch the wood; my brothers are trembling much. 

 Adjectives, too, are used as verbs ; thus : molemo, good or 

 goodness; Icmohala, become good; molatu, guilt or guilty; 

 latuhala, become guilty; latuhatsa, cause to become guilty 

 = accuse ; intle, beautiful ; inllahatsa, make beautiful ; lele, 

 long; lelehatsa, make long. Then nouns are formed from 

 these again, thus : temohalo, a becoming good ; tatnhalo, a 

 becoming guilty = latuhaco, accusation; telehaco, a making 

 long; tsepha, cleanse or purify; tsepho, purity; itsepha, 



