Every one knows how a Chicken’s leg is sometimes broken, and, in healing, is twisted to one side. This, of course, refers to very young Chickens. I have seldom had one on my own plate whose leg could have been broken by anything short of a butcher’s cleaver. The legs of fliers and the wings of walkers are choice morsels, but of the legs of walkers and the wings of fliers, the less said the better, and the more polite when at the table.
To return, not to our mutton, as the French have it, but to our Crow, as the politicians say.
Jim had a great many friends among his own race, and after they learned not to be afraid of me, they used to call upon him at stated intervals. Often I have gone out in the morning and found my dooryard black with Crows holding a caucus. Some Unnaturalists have it that every Crow is an independent caucus, but I am not prepared to make any positive statements on this point.
It was by watching these assemblies that I learned the Crow language. Every student of Natural History admits that Crows have a way of talking to each other and making themselves understood. It has remained for me, however, to tabulate these utterances in suitable lists, and by the same method pursued by Champollion with the Rosetta Stone, together with the system of cipher-solving elucidated in The Gold Bug, arrive at the inner meaning of their language.
A few keen-eyed Little Brothers of the Woods, working independently, have discovered with me that caw is only one syllable of a somewhat complicated speech. They often say ker-ker, ah-ah, cluck-cluck, haw-haw, and ha-ha, making in addition several other sounds which are difficult to describe adequately in print.
I took the precaution to use a phonograph, and thus secure exact records. The entire subject, treated scientifically, and at the proper scientific length, will be found in my volume published last year, under the title: The Nature, Habits, and Language of the Crow Indians, as Seen by a Scientific Observer Cooped up by Them on Their Reservation: Together with Exhausting Notes Concerning Their Songs, Ballads, Dramas, Customs, and Crafts.
My publishers thought the title was a little too long, but I pointed out to them that many scientific works have even longer titles, and that when anybody pays two dollars for a book, it is with the expectation of securing two dollars’ worth of language.
Not to weary the reader with details, and to interest the general public in the more expensive book, I transcribe below a few of the more prominent words of the Crow language.
Caw—Has as many uses as the Latin verb fero, and the precise meaning depends largely upon the tone of utterance. In a loud, clear, cheerful tone, it means, as nearly as can be expressed: “Good morning, Carrie.”
Caw—Fortissimo, means: “Man. Might be dangerous. Keep sharp lookout.”