1849.] valley of Asam and its mountain confines. 313 



a ball to James, are extremely common. The preposition i/ang is 

 most commonly used as the particle to denote the dative case. Thus : 



2 3 1 1 2 3 3 12 12 



i/ang man haii da. Give (it) to him. /Tang man mm po. You beat 



3 



him. 



The other Cases, denoted in Sanskrit by the names of the Instru- 

 mental, the Ablative, and the Locative, are supplied by the use of pre- 

 positive particles. 



The Khamti noun admits of no plural form. In those instances in 

 -which the noun does not express a collective or a plural idea, a numeral 

 added to it renders the expression sufficiently intelligible. 



To express the difference of gender in the inferior animals, the term 

 Thuk, is used to denote the male ; and Me, the female. 

 A horse, Masc. Mk thuk ; Fern. Mk me. 

 A deer, Masc. Ny\ thuk ; Fern. Nji me. 

 A goat, Masc. Pe thuk ; Fern. Pe me. 

 A tiger, Masc. Sii thuk ; Fern. Sii me. 

 A dog, Masc. Ma thuk ; Fern. Ma me. 

 A cat, Masc. Miau thuk ; Fern. Miau me. 

 For individuals of the human family the term Sau is used to distin- 

 guish the male, and Zing, the female. 



Masculine. Feminine. 



Jfum sau, man. Kun ?/ing, woman. 



Xuk sau, son. Zuk y'mg, daughter. 



Pi sau, brother. Pi 2/ing, sister. 



K\m sau an, boy. Kun ying an, girl. 



In some cases however gender is indicated by the use of distinct 

 words. Thus; Po, father; Me, mother. Pho, husband; Me, wife. 



Of Adjectives. 



An adjective generally follows a substantive ; examp. Kxm ni, a good 



Ma ma n\, a bad (not good) dog. Vdpi, a fat sheep. 

 In forming the comparative degree of the adjective, the word Leu, 

 beyond, than, is added to it in its positive form. Thus ; yaii, great ; 

 yau leu hv\w, greater than the house. Kat, cold. Kat leu nam, colder 

 than water. 



The superlative degree is formed by the addition of the words Leu 



2 s 2 



