780 The American Naturalist. [September. 
our desire, for instance, to register and define the Cherokee word 
meaning the same as the English word write. It is to be doubted 
if it was ever heard or written except in some such conglomera- 
tion of vocables as Wctsbyawaldndtcyc. Now to find the word of 
which we are in quest, this word-sentence will have to be resolved 
into its component elements thus : 
We^-ts6^-y''-awal^-a'-na''-teye' . We may then define as follows : 
1 . We-, adv. Thither ; indicating motion. 
2. Lso-. pro. I — you ; carrying the meaning of two pronouns. 
3. Y-. A letter inserted for the sake of euphony. 
4. Awal-. v. t. Write, draw, inscribe. 
5. A-. Tense sign, indicating the present tense. 
6. Na-. Mode sign, showing that the action affects rational 
beings. 
7. Teye-. Sign of the infinitive mode. 
It were easy to extend these illustrations of the work before us, 
without impairment of interest, or much danger of exhausting the 
source from which they are derived ; but we are admonished by 
the limits of this article that the foregoing must suffice. 
As touching the questions of ethnological science, there is no 
field of research more instructive than that of human language. 
The mind is the measure of the man ; and so it is the essential 
personality of a race or a nation. The remains of art which a 
departed people leave behind them may suffice to give us a pretty 
clear idea of what they could do ; but if we would know them as 
they were, we must needs study them through the medium of 
their tongue. 
The few fragmentary Indian tribes that still remain are the 
custodians of a very rich store of linguistic material, the value of 
which, as data for scientific contemplation, cannot be easily over- 
estimated. Not one of these tongues, however, can be expected 
to survive for a great while, except by the interposition of some 
friendly hand to save it from extinction. A fact like this can not 
be regarded by the scientist but with feelings of the deepest con- 
cern ; for if it is desirable (and there can be few things that are 
more so) that an intelligible specimen of the red man's language 
