Opuscula: Essays chiefly Philological and Ethnographical

As Mr. Squier is the sole authority for the Lenca of San Salvador and Honduras, so he is for

Nicaragua.

Limiting ourselves to the undoubtedly Nicaraguan area, and taking no note of the Mexican Proper of more than one interesting Mexican settlement, the three forms of speech for which we have specimens are—

1. The Choretega;
2. The Nagranda; and
3. The Wulwa, of the Chontal district.

And now we pass to the Debateable Ground. The language of

The Moskito Country

gives us a fourth form of speech; at least (I think) as different from the Choretega, Nagranda, Wulwa and Lenca, as they are from each other. This is—

The Waikna of the Indians of the coast, and, probably, of several allied tribes inland.

Of the Waikna, Wulwa, Nagranda, and Choretega, samples may be found either in Squier's Nicaragua, or vol. iii. of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society.

For the Waikna there are other materials. The Wulwa specimens are few. Hence it may be doubtful whether the real difference between it and the Waikna be so great as the following table suggests.

Costa Rica.

The following is from a vocabulary of Dr. Karl Scherzers of the languages of the Blanco, Valiente, and Talamenca Indians of Costa Rica, occupants of the parts between the River Zent and the Boca del Toro. We may call it a specimen of

The Talamenca.—It seems to be, there or thereabouts, as different from the preceding languages as they are from each other.

The same volume of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society that supplies us with Mr. Squier's vocabularies for Nicaragua supplies us with Dr. Seeman's for

Veragua.

These being for

• The Bayano;
• The Savaneric; and
• The Cholo.

The Cholo is the same as Dr. Cullen's Yule, and also the same as Cunacuna and Darien of Balbi and the Mithridates.

It is also the same as some short specimens of the Mithridates; where

• water = dulah.
• moon = nu.
• father = tautah.
• mother = naunah.
• brother = rupah.
• sister = ninah.
• wife (woman) = poonah.

The Cholo leads us into South America, where for the present; we leave it.

ADDENDA.

I will now add two notes, which may possibly save some future investigator an unremunerative search.

First, concerning a language called Mocorosi.—In Jülg, this is made a language of Mexico. It is really the Moxa of South America under an altered name.

This is from an Arte y vocabulario de la Lengua Mocorosi, compuesto por un padre de la compañia de Jesus missionero de la Provincias de los Moxos dedicado a la Serenissima Reyna de los Angeles siempre Virgen Maria, Patrona de estas Missiones; en Madrid, año de 1699.

A Lima edition A.D. 1701 differs from this in omitting the name Mokorosi, and being dedicated to a different patron. In other respects the two works agree verbatim et literatim.

Secondly, in respect to a language called Timuacuana—For this we have a Catechismo y examen para los que comulgan ex lengua Castellana y Timuquana, por el Padre Fr. Francisco Pareja; and y Padre de la Provincia de Santa Elena de la Florida, &c. Mexico, 1627.

Also, the following numerals in Balbi, perhaps, taken from the above:—

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA

(1859).

P. 252.—"Is not this Mozino's?"—No. For a further notice see p. 388.

P. 258.—"Kawichen and Tlaoquatch."—The Kawichen is nearer to the Nusdalum, Squallyamish, and Cathlascou than it is to the Tlaoquatch. This may be seen in Buschmann p. 649. At the same time it is more Tlaoquatch than Buschmann makes it.

P. 259.—"The Athabascan languages are undoubtedly Eskimo."—Between the notice contained in p. 299 and the paper which precedes it there is an interval of no less than five years. There is also one of three years between it and the paper which follows.

Now up to 1850 I gave the term Eskimo a power which I afterwards found reason to abandon. I gave it the power of a generic name for a class containing not only the Eskimo Proper, but the Athabascan, and the Kolooch. The genus, though in a modified form, I still believe to exist; I have ceased, however, to think that Eskimo is the best name for it. Hence, expressions like "the Athabascan languages are, undoubtedly, Eskimo—and the Kolooch languages are equally Eskimo with the Athabascan" must be read in the sense of the author as expressed in p. 265—"that the line of demarcation between the Eskimo and the Indian races of America was far too broad and trenchant."

Whether certain forms of speech were not connected with the Eskimo Proper—the Eskimo in the limited and specific meaning of the term—is another question. The Ugalents was so treated. The Kenay—until the publication of Sir T. Richardson's Loucheux specimens—was made both too Eskimo and too Kolooch. On the other hand, however, both the Eskimo and the Koluch were divisions of the same order. The actual value of the term Kolooch is even now uncertain.

P. 276.—"The Ahnenin etc."—A reference to the word Arrapahoes in Ludwig's Bibliotheca Glottica (both in the body of the work and the Addenda) suggests a doubt as to the accuracy of the form Ahnenin. Should it not be Atsina?

Turner remarks that "there is no evidence that Dr. Latham collated" Mackenzie's vocabulary—which, as far as the text of Ludwig goes, is true enough. I had, however, vivâ voce, informed Ludwig's Editor that I had done so. As Turner knew nothing of this his remark was a proper one. The main question, however, touches the form of the word. Is Ahnenin or Atsina right? I can not make out the later history of the MS. In my own part, I copied, collated, and returned it; and I imagine that it still be amongst either Prichard's or Gallatin's papers. I have the transcript before me at this moment; which runs thus. "The vocabularies of the Blackfeet, of the Crows or Upsarokas, and of the Grosventre, Rapid, or Fall Indians who call themselves Ahnenin; by D. M. M'Kenzie of the St Louis American Furr Comp. They appear to belong to three distinct families. But the Crows speak a dialect clearly belonging to the same language as that of the sedentary Minitares and Mandans, which is Sioux."

As the MS. was written with unusual clearness and distinctness I have no doubt as to Ahnenin having been the word. That Prichard read it so is evident; for the foregoing explanation has made it clear that he and I are independent witnesses. If error, then, exists it is in the MS.

The Blackfoot and Crow (which having also transcribed, I have by me) are as follows:—

The Italics are the present author's. They draw attention to either a coincidence between the two languages, or the compound character of the word.

II.—The Sioux group.—For a remark on the affinities between the Pawni and Caddo, see p. 400.

The following coincidences are the result of a very limited collation.

(1).
Cherokee and Caddo.