= those two large spoons which you bought for me, they are lost. The plural prefix _ma_ of the first word which is the nominative is prefixed to all the other words because they are dependent on it. If it had been in the singular it would have been _li_toko _li_na, etc. This alliterative concord, as it is called, is very helpful to clearness of meaning. In the Boloki language there are eight classes of alliterative concord,[7] i.e. all the nouns in the language belong to one or other of these eight classes, and directly the class of a noun is decided its pronominal prefixes, its possessive and demonstrative pronouns, etc., are at once known also by the fixed rules of usage, or, as we should say, by the grammar of the language, and its plural form is also easily ascertainable. Footnote 7: On the Lower Congo there are fifteen classes. Class 1. _Motu_ = person. _Batu_ = persons, people. Class 2. _Ndaku_ = house. _Mandaku_ = houses. Class 3. _Loboko_ = arm. _Maboko_ = arms. Class 4. _Linkeme_ = _Mankeme_ = guinea fowls. guinea fowl. Class 5. _Bopepe_ = pipe _Mapepe_ = pipe bowls. bowl. Class 6. _Lobeki_ = _Mbeki_ = saucepans. saucepan. Class 7. _Etanda_ = _Bitanda_ = planks. plank. Class 8. _Munke_ = eggs. _Minke_ = eggs. Collective noun, _nke_ = a lot of eggs, and this makes its plural in _manke_ = lots, as _manke mabale_ = two lots of eggs, as a noun of Class 2. It took us a considerable time to work out this classification, as it meant the collecting of a very large number of words and the writing down of their singular and plural forms. It was easy enough to see that all nouns beginning with “_e_” made their plurals by turning the “_e_” into “_bi_”; but it was not so easy to decide about the “_lo_,” for we found that some plurals were made by changing the “_lo_” into “_ma_,” and others by turning “_lo_” into “_m_”; and when it is remembered that there are sixteen ways of using every adjective, according as it is singular or plural and belongs to one or other of the classes, it will be recognized by the reader that an African language is something to study and not despise as being “only a nigger’s language.” Of course, it is easy to pick up a few words and phrases for ordinary daily use which, when eked out with gestures, will carry the traveller a long way if he has a factotum quick at sign and thought-reading; but for expressing the finer shades of meaning, and also for receiving the same, an intimate knowledge of the language is necessary. I have heard more than one white man blame the missionary for “making a grammar for the nigger”; whereas the missionary has simply found out the rules by which the “niggers” talk, and written them down in such grammatical terms that others might understand them.