The oration by the man at the top of the hill may perhaps be likened to a speech that Cermeño made note of, when, in 1595, he was at Drake's Bay: "... Indians from near by kept coming and the chief talked a long time."[62] It is not improbable that the speaker mentioned by Fletcher was a messenger dispatched to announce the later coming of the big chief.[63] Or, the orator may simply have been a local village chief who delivered a long address or salutation to the English. The existence, at least, of such orators is known.[64] The signal of approbation, "Oh," has already been remarked upon by S. A. Barrett: "The expressions of assent and pleasure which are here noted are those commonly used not only by the Moqueluman Coast Miwok peoples of this region but by the Pomo to the north where such expressions as _o_, _yo_, _iyo_, varying with the locality, are heard, as evidences of approval of the sentiment expressed by the speaker, or of satisfaction with the performance of a dance."[65] When the preliminaries were over, the men came down the hill, and the women remained behind, lamenting, and lacerating their flesh. Crying and tearing the cheeks with the fingernails, as an ethnographic practice in connection with mourning, is documented for the Coast Miwok[66] and Pomo.[67] The word _Gnaah_, by which (so Fletcher states) the Indians asked the English to sing, can possibly be likened to the Coast Miwok _koyá_, "sing."[68] If it is granted that _Gnaah_ is equivalent to _koyá_, there is good reason to believe that Coast Miwok were the main frequenters of Drake's camp, since Fletcher says, "... whensoever they resorted to vs, their first request was _Gnaah_, by which they intreated that we would sing." The words for "sing" in neighboring Indian tongues are so unlike _Gnaah_ that no idea of connection can be entertained.