which, there is reason to
believe, is always derived from the first fish or animal which the child,
in accompanying its father to the chase or a fishing, may chance to kill.

Not only their combinations, but some of their simple sounds, were
difficult of pronunciation to mouths purely English. Diphthongs often
occur. One of the most common is that of 'ae', or perhaps, 'ai', pronounced
not unlike those letters in the French verb 'hair', to hate. The letter 'y'
frequently follows 'd' in the same syllable. Thus the word which signifies
a woman is 'dyin'; although the structure of our language requires us to
spell it 'deein'.

But if they sometimes put us to difficulty, many of our words were to them
unutterable. The letters 's' and 'v' they never could pronounce. The latter
became invariably 'w', and the former mocked all their efforts, which in
the instance of Baneelon has been noticed; and a more unfortunate defect in
learning our language could not easily be pointed out.

They use the ellipsis in speaking very freely; always omitting as many
words as they possibly can, consistent with being understood. They inflect
both their nouns and verbs regularly; and denote the cases of the former
and the tenses of the latter, not like the English by auxiliary words, but
like the Latins by change of termination. Their nouns, whether substantive
or adjective, seem to admit of no plural. I have heard Mr. Dawes hint his
belief of their using a dual number, similar to the Greeks, but I confess
that I never could remark aught to confirm it. The method by which they
answer a question that they cannot resolve is similar to what we
sometimes use. Let for example the following question be put: 'Waw Colbee
yagoono?'--Where is Colbee to-day? 'Waw, baw!'--Where, indeed! would be the
reply. They use a direct and positive negative, but express the affirmative
by a nod of the head or an inclination of the body.

Opinions have greatly differed, whether or not their language be copious.
In one particular it is notoriously defective. They cannot count with
precision more than four. However as far as ten, by holding up the fingers,
they can both comprehend others and explain themselves. Beyond four every
number is called great; and should it happen to be very large, great great,
which is an Italian idiom also. This occasions their computations of time
and space to be very confused and incorrect. Of the former they have no
measure but the visible d