XII

welckwintok,and expressing in one word of three syllables, he is coming along, singing as he comes; which we use eight words of eleven syllables to express. Take a related word wetckwowooléjz’k, which means, they are approaching bringing burdens on their backs, While wedawz'ntok means, I hear him singing in the distance though I do not see him, and pemtcajegé means I saunter leisurely along the shore.

Let us take up a long word and analyse it; it contains the root elements of nine words pared and pieced together in proper order, yet each retaining its individuality, there are twenty-six syllables and fifty- seven letters, the word, or more properly phrase, is :—00-kuse—m0we- beféle - fieganik-tcz'je-z‘eg- dwehoo - adakadimk - awaumoo - ogul, and it means in English ‘their superlativelyexcellent prophesyings.’ It springs from a very small root, kej, and grows at both ends; this root occurs in words denoting knowledge, and here assumes the form lcije for euphonic reasons; first prefix the word neganoo which becomes neganik, and means beforehand, we have then negam'k-tcz'jedoo, I know it beforehand—I prophesy; now add a suflix to denote the agent of the action, and a prophet is called negam'k-tczje- leg—(221161100, being the one who knows before; to this add the word denoting a special action, and where we say prophecy, the Micmac says negam'k- tcjz'e-teg-fiwenoo-adegd, and this in turn means what others have pro- phesied, by an addition which gives us negam'k-tcije-teg-dwenoo— adakadz'mk-awaumoa-ogul (for the adegfi changes to adakadzmk); now we build on a pronoun and three adjectives at the other end—00, meaning their; louse or kese, meaning finished or stated; mowe‘, superlatively; and bejéle, excellent; and the completed word-structure: stands nude in its complex simplicity before us:

ookusemowebejéle—neganiktcz'jetegdwenooada/eadimkawamoagul.

A much longer word, conveying the idea of tolerably correct, is written in Rand’s manuscript with seventy-four letters, and, referring to it, he says that it bids for notice with that Greek name for ‘pulse', which enumerated all the ingredients in the conglomeration; or with that Sanscrit word which is said to have contained all the sounds of a summer’s day.