c. The incorporation of the objective pronoun with the verb. The Latin word a-ma-nt contains, beside the part which represents the action, a second element representing the agent. An American verb would, besides this, contain an element representing the object, so that what the Latin expressed by amant illas (two words) would be denoted in most Indian tongues by a single form. Now when we remember that the name of the object is thus reduced to an inflection, and also that the pronoun expressive of it, varies with the sex, we see how American tongues may be both copious in the way of grammar and complex as well. And such, notwithstanding many facts to the contrary, is really the case.
Inclusive and exclusive plurals.—A word like we in English, is a much more abstract word than it appears to be at first sight. What should we say if instead thereof we only said I+thou, or I+they? What if both these expressions were used? In such a case we should have two plurals one exclusive of the person spoken to (I+they), and one inclusive of him (I+thou). Now the phænomenon of the exclusive and inclusive plural is very general throughout the aboriginal languages of America.
Such are the chief points wherein languages differ in respect to their lexicons, and agree in respect to their grammars.[142]
The Californias, New Mexico, and the provinces of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Cohuahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and the northern part of the Anahuac, will now conduct us to the centre of the Aztek civilization—or semi-civilization of the city of Montezuma. And here the enumeration of the divisions and sub-divisions of the population must be almost exclusively geographical, i.e. we must take the tribes as they come in their order on the map, and not in the order wherein they are related to each other. The reason of this lies in the unsatisfactory character of our knowledge. Preeminently scanty, it is unsystematic as well. What follows then is but little better than an undigested list of references, more than one of which may refer to the same tribes under different names, and more than one of which may be incorrect. Still it is a contribution towards a monograph, the necessity of which gives it place in a systematic work, which it would not have otherwise; and lest the value of such a monograph, if properly drawn up, be undervalued, the reader is reminded that most of the elements of our criticism in regard to the civilizational phænomena presented by Mexico, Guatimala and Yucatan, depend upon the facts known concerning the Californias and the parts to the south of them.
New California.—For the parts between the mouths of the rivers Clamet (or Lutuami) and Sacramiento.—Physical geography gives us for these parts three divisions: a, the coast and western boundary of the valley of the Sacramiento; b, the valley of the Sacramiento itself; c, the eastern watershed of the Sacramiento.
a. For the coast we have a notice as to the miserable condition of the natives about Trinity Bay in N. L. 41° with the special statement that they file their teeth. Probably they constitute an extension of the Southern Tototunes. On the other hand, the later writers have remarked, that the boundary between the Oregon and California is not only a political but an ethnological one as well; in other words, that the physical appearance of the Indians changes as soon as the frontier is passed. Except so far as there is a difference in the physical geography, this coincidence is unlikely.
b. In respect, however, to the valley of the Sacramiento, such a difference exists. The Desert of California, like that of the Sahara, has its oases, and these are the valleys of its rivers. However narrow these may be, the conditions of physical and social development which they afford, are always improvements upon those of the desert table-land. Here our only data are Mr. Dana's, which consist of—
1. A vocabulary of the occupants of the river about 250 miles from its mouth, and 60 miles south of the Shasti, whom they resemble, being a mirthful race, with no arms but bows and arrows, and with little intercourse with foreigners.
2, 3, 4. Four vocabularies from the occupants of the river, about 100 miles to its mouth, i.e. of the Puzhune, Sekumne, and Tsamak dialects. Allied to these and like them occupants of the western bank, are the Yasumnes, the Nemshaw, the Kisky, the Yalesumnes, the Yuk, and the Yukal.
5. A Talatui vocabulary. Captain Suter, a settler in these parts, informed Mr. Dana, that the Talatui and the Indians just named, resembled each other in every thing but language, and that the Talatui was spoken by the following bands:—The Ochekamnes, the Seroushumnes, the Chupumnes, the Omutchumnes, the Secumnes(?), the Walagumnes, the Cosumnes, the Sololumnes, the Turealemnes, the Saywaymenes, the Nevichumnes, the Matchemnes, the Sagayayumnes, the Muthelemnes, and the Lopotalemnes. Probably the Chochouyem tribe of the Mithridates belongs to this quarter. Probably, also, the Youkiousme of Mofras(?)