Note 254 — I. VOCABULARIES OF SOME OF THE TRIBES OF NORTHWESTERN AMERICA, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE

Written from the pronunciation of the old Kutanä̍ Indian, Hómach-Ksáchkum, the Great Earth, of whom a most excellent likeness is given on Plate 79 of my Atlas. I have spoken of this people in several places in the first volume of this work. Parker (ibid., p. 304) says of the Kutonä̍s, Kutnehä̍s, or Kutanihs: "The Cootanies inhabit a section of country to the north of the Ponderas along M'Gillivray's river, and they are represented as an uncommonly interesting people. They speak a language distinct from all the tribes about them, open and sonorous, and free from gutturals, which are common in the language of the surrounding tribes. They are neat in their persons and lodges, candid and honest, and kind to each other. I could not ascertain their numbers, but probably they are not over a thousand." In Ross Cox, (p. 242), there is also information regarding them; but the missionary Parker (ibid., p. 286) seems to call this traveller's truthfulness in question. From my carefully copied words of the Kutanä language, it is evident that it is not easy to pronounce on account of its lingual clicking; and that it has a large number of guttural tones.—Maximilian.