FOREST AND STREAM 
239 
Mil 11—1 
List Price, $12.00 
STEVENS; 
No. 414 — 22 -CALIBRE — TAKE DOWN 
A TARGET RIFLE - not a musket— 
Ksre l 5“. ssss- , sr 
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jectives, with which to form his figurative ex¬ 
pressions. These are to the native personal and 
p uliar. Not every Indian is an orator, and it 
has been no uncommon thing to see a distinguish¬ 
ed chief employ some more gifted tribesman to 
deliver his flowery harangues.” 
“Why, then, does a white man find it so diffi¬ 
cult to master the Indian tongue?” 
“Well, as I’ve already stated several times, 
this, the Indian language, is perfect in its own 
way, and has many beauties not to be found in 
our modern languages. But it is a language of 
verbs. In a word, the whole structure of the 
Algic language, and the Huron and Iroquois dia¬ 
lects as well, depends upon the verb. It is the 
supreme chief of the language and draws into 
its magical circle all the other parts of speech, 
and makes them act, move, suffer and even exist 
in the manner, and in such situations as are pleas¬ 
ing to it. This is the great characteristic that 
distinguishes the Indian language from our own 
and other European ones—the peculiar structure 
and powers of their verb. 
“In fact, the whole fabric of the language is 
of a peculiar form, as compared with European 
ones. The Indian groups and arranges his ideas 
to suit himself; we, who speak the modern 
languages, are confined within the rules of syn¬ 
tax. In the native tongue long expressions in 
French and English are often shortened; short 
ones are lengthened. Still, it is a system com¬ 
plete in its mechanism, and has proven quite ade¬ 
quate to the natives’ needs. The Indian may 
often be in want of a name, yet he is never left 
in a quandary—he simply defines or describes the 
object. Thus his language has become a descrip¬ 
tive one. It is also, most abundant in specific or 
concrete terms, but lacking in abstract or gen¬ 
eral words. Thus, for instance, for the varieties, 
sexes, and ages of a single animal there are a 
multitude of terms, but no general word for the 
animal.” 
The abundance of lengthy, flowery descriptives 
is peculiar and common to all the dialects of the 
American Indians, while barren of terms for 
the particular designation of natural objects. 
Until one has acquired the art of embellishing 
the substance of his speech with a multitude of 
natural descriptives he is far from being a 
master of the language. A council was being 
held by one of the Crees for the purpose 
of discussing the relative merits of Government 
treaty money and of land script, which was soon 
for the first time, to be distributed to the mem¬ 
bers of the tribe. A script buyer and a mission¬ 
ary were both present and each in turn address¬ 
ed the assembled Indians. The former advocat¬ 
ed the acceptance of the script by all who were 
entitled to receive it; the latter exhorted all to 
become treaty Indians. Although the mission¬ 
ary had a litle Cree blood in his veins, and for 
over twenty years had been a diligent student of 
the language, his opponent had still the advan¬ 
tage. He was half-breed and since childhood 
had spent most of his life among the Crees of 
Keewatin and the west. He spoke to the Indians 
in their native idioms with all the forceful elo¬ 
quence of the 1 deliberate Cree. Time after time 
he repeated his arguments, yet never in the same 
words, calling into use an apparently inexhaus¬ 
tible fund of flowery descriptive phrases. The 
result of the contest was, that the majority of 
his hearers, heretofore staunchly loyal to the 
missionary fell to the other’s unsound ideas— 
swept away by the speaker’s fluent interpretation 
of the beautiful natural metaphors of the Cree 
tongue. 
The Iroquois tongue, as spoken by the Six Na¬ 
tions and some of the neighboring tribes, presents 
more difficulties to the student than any of the 
Algic dialects. 
It is a branch of the Huron language and Euro¬ 
peans have ever found it hard to learn. Gram¬ 
marians tell us that it is not so much because of 
the mental processes which the language ex¬ 
presses, as the inherent difficulties of inflection 
and articulation. A remarkable peculiarity that 
separates the language of the Iroquois stock 
from their Algonquin neighbors and the western 
tribes, is the absence of labial consonants from 
their dialects. A writer once said that it is this 
feature of the Iroquois tongue that permits the 
native to talk perfectly with his pipe between his 
teeth. 
“Some have absurdly stated,” said Father 
Richard, “that the Indian is often obliged to ges¬ 
ticulate in order to make himself understood by 
his fellows. That is untrue—absurdly so. Why, 
the Red Man, even in his most uncivilized state, 
could always give expression to his thoughts 
with precision and fluency. This he could do, 
too, in the dark, or otherwise, when gesticula¬ 
tion would be useless. 
“No, the Indian language is a faithful inter¬ 
preter of the understanding and of the heart. Ges¬ 
ticulation is quite foreign to their speech. Most 
of the dialect, like the Otchipwe, gave a languid 
manner of expression, quite in harmony with the 
cautious Indian character. 
“The Eskimo tongue agrees somewhat in form, 
(Continued on page 256) 
