Substantives have modifications by which locality, diminution, a defective quality, and the past tense are expressed ; by which various adjectives and adverbal significations are given ; and the substantives themselves converted into verbs. Such finally the of the and modes masculine feminine are, also, indicating

yun,

thy

home; Aindau-d,

his

is

;

(both merged in the animate class), and those words which are of a strictly sexual character, or are restricted in their use to

males or females.

That quality of the noun which, in the shape of an inflection, denotes the relative situation of the object by the contiguous

HUDSON RIVER INDIANS.

position of some accessory object, is expressed, in the English In the Indian language, by the prepositions in, into, at or on.

Thus the phrase, in the they are denoted by an inflection. box, is rendered, in the Indian, by one word, mukukoong ; the termination oong denoting the locality, not of the box, but of the object sought after. Generally, the inflection is employed when there is some circumstance or condition of the noun either con

The principal local inflections cealed, or not fully apparent. are ing and oong, which become aing and eeng as the terminal vowel of the noun may require. Ishkodai, fire ; hhkod-aing, Kon, Sebeeng, in or on the river on the snow Azhibik, rock ; Azhibikoong, in or on the rock, &c. The local form pertains either to such nouns of the animate class as are in their nature inanimates, or at most possessed of There is another variation of the local form of vegetable life. in or on the fire ; Sebe, river ;