294 MODE OF REDUCING AN ORAL LANGUAGE, 28 June, 
I therefore in the evening commenced the work, intending to 
dedicate to it, till completed, every hour of leisure which my other 
labors and occupations might occasionally permit. As all the party 
were now in good spirits, and our affairs seemed to proceed more 
smoothly than they had for a long time, this was the proper season 
for such an employment ; and, having first put my interpreter in 
good humour by a present of a new handkerchief, I took him to 
my waggon, to begin his task. To prevent his misapprehending the 
meaning of my questions, I kept one of my Hottentots sitting by us, 
to explain in his way any question which I might happen to put, as 
a European is very liable to do, in terms above the capacity and 
judgment of an uncivilized and untaught person. 
The method which was then pursued, may still be the best by 
which a traveller may reduce an oral language to a written form, and 
acquire in the shortest possible time, a tolerably complete knowledge 
of it ; or at least, may fix it on paper in a state in which it may 
afterwards be more fully and critically examined. I had before me a 
printed dictionary (in this case it was in Dutch, because in that lan- 
guage all my questions were put), from which were selected, in their 
order, all those words which admitted of interpretation in the dialect 
of a people ignorant of science or nice moral or metaphysical dis- 
tinctions ; or, in other terms, such words only were taken, the mean- 
ing of which could be made intelligible to their simple minds. My 
question was begun by endeavouring to obtain a native word exactly 
equivalent to that which was in the book ; but if it was perceived 
that my interpreter found any difficulty in understanding it, a short 
phrase was proposed, in which the meaning of that word was in- 
volved ; and his translation was then written down exactly as it was 
pronounced ; taking care at the same time, to divide the syllables by 
placing points beneath the word, and to note the accent and short 
vowels. * This, however, was not done without much trouble and 
many explanations ; but he was desired to repeat it so often that one 
could not easily be mistaken in the words or their sounds. By these 
* See page 253. at the word ' three.' 
