into them as many letters as possible. The first mention of a word of the Dakota or Sioux language in a European book is said to be one which Hennepin wrote in his Journal, on his being taken by a war-party on the Upper Mississippi. The savages were angry at seeing him read his breviary, and fiercely spoke a word which Hennepin writes Ouakanche! This word now appears in the Dakota vocabulary as Wakan-de, meaning magical, or supernatural.[1]
In the earliest intercourse between the Europeans and the Indians, a medium was established between them by meeting each other in speech and in sign-language, as we should say, half way. Father Lafitau has, with his usual intelligence, described the process as follows: —
“When two peoples who speak languages so widely unlike as
those of the Iroquois and the French come together for the ends of
traffic, or for mutual service in defence, they are compelled, equally
on either side, to approach each in the other's language, in order to
make themselves understood. This is difficult enough in the beginning;
but at last, with a little practice, they come to communicate
their thoughts, partly by gestures and partly by some corrupt words
which belong to neither language, because they are mere blunderings,
and compose a discourse without rhyme or reason. Still, by
practice, fixed significations are assigned to these terms, and they
serve the end proposed by them. Thus is formed a language or
jargon of scant authority in the dictionary and confined only to
intercourse. The Frenchman thinks he is using the language of
the savages, the savage that he is speaking that of the French, and
they understand enough to serve their needs. During the first
months of my stay at Sault-Saint-Loüis the savages used this jargon
to me, supposing that, being a Frenchman, I ought to understand it.
But I understood so little of it, that, when I began to apprehend a
little more clearly the principles of their natural speech, I was
obliged to ask them to speak as they do to each other, and I then
entered much better into their
thoughts.”[2]
