XIII

The Micmac glories in being able to express an idea in several , different ways; thus one may use feminine expressions or man-talk, he may speak vulgarly or refined,—he may even be classical ! Ask a , Micmac his word for ‘head’ and he will give you munoolc; but head i in composition is invariably 2061;, as sész'piwdtp, a bird’s head; while , if I wish to inform you that I have a large head I say mag-61p? , and for “ my head is cold ’ I say kdooz‘aitpdoolc, retaining the same root idea throughout. The word for snow is wdstdoo, but pdsdk means ‘it 3-. snows;’ the wind is oolcuszm; but if someone remarks that the wind ,‘ blows, he uses the word wejoosulc, while if another asks, ‘ which way i is the wind?‘ his query is ‘ldme weluk ?’ Examples might be multi- . plied ad infinitum, until you are ready to admit the Micmac’s exultant boast: “ Always everything two ways me speakum !"

It is to be remembered that one word may be used with various shades of meaning, and that no two men will wholly agree about either the exact use, or correct translation of many words and idiom- atic phrases; Rand’s attempt at grammatical arrangement included only the noun, pronoun and part of the verb; many statements, too, made in earlier pages of his manuscripts were contradicted, but not cancelled, after further study, as the manuscripts were necessarily left behind when he went about his work; hence the compiler has often had to discard and forget whole sections upon which he had spent hours of toil.

Many words were compared, of which a few only can be given: laboo is two, L. duo, Fr. deux, katabai, I go down under water, cf. Gr. xawaflawm; dit, he says cf. L. ‘ait;' espum, I hear it, Gr. E71560; abe, Gr. 0.71:0; temsum, I cut it, Gr. train/(1); kalosit

,’ pretty, good, Gr. xalkog; alai, I go, is almost identical with the

. 3French aler‘; astoo, 1n the sunshine, cf. L. ‘aestu’; obdaon, a rod, cf. Gr, /’ “1165011, nékokd, a spear, cf. Gr. axanm; kémé, a harbour, cf. Gr. 1051137, a village, and note that villages and harbours are often ciated. At least fifty as striking resemblances, though excluding (gnomatapoetic words, are noted by Dr. Rand, and he was evidently of

$16 opinion that both the Micmac language and mythology are' I, related in no small degree to those of the Indo-European family.

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