In the seventh place, they have so tiresome an abundance that I am almost led to believe that I shall remain poor all my life in their language. When you know all the parts of Speech of the languages of our Europe, and know how to combine them, you know the languages; but it is not so concerning the tongue of our Savages. Stock your memory with all the words that stand for each particular thing, learn the knot or Syntax that joins them together, and you are still only an ignoramus; with that, you can indeed make yourself understood by the Savages, although not always, but you will not be able to understand [180] them. The reason for this is, that, besides the names of each particular thing, they have an infinite number of words which signify several things together. If I wish to say in French, "the wind drives the snow," it is enough for me to know these three words, "the wind," the verb "drive," and "the snow," and to know how to combine them; but it is not so here. I know how they say "the wind," _routin_; how they say "it drives something noble," as the snow is in the Savage estimation,--the word for this is _rakhineou_; I know how they say "snow," it is _couné_. But, if I try to combine these three words, _Routin rakhineou couné_, the Savages will not understand me; or, if they understand, will begin to laugh, because they do not talk like that, merely making use of a single word, _piouan_, to say "the wind drives or makes the snow fly." Likewise the verb _nisiicatchin_, means "I am cold;" the noun _nissitai_, means "my feet;" if I say _nisiicat chin nissitai_, to say "my feet are cold," they will indeed understand me; but I shall not understand them when they say _Nitatagouasisin_, which is the proper word to say, "my feet are cold." And what [181] ruins the memory is, that such a word has neither relation, nor alliance, nor any affinity, in its sound, with the other two; whence it often happens that I make them laugh in talking, when I try to follow the construction of the Latin or French language, not knowing these words which mean several things at once. From this it happens, also, that very often I do not understand them, although they understand me; for as they do not use the words which signify one thing in particular, but rather those that mean a combination of things, I knowing only the first, and not even the half of those, could not understand them if they did not have sufficient intelligence to vary and choose more common words, for then I try to unravel them. C'est assez pour monstrer l'abondance de leur langue, si ie la sçauois parfaitement i'en parlerois auec plus d'asseurance; ie croy qu'ils ont d'autres richesses que ie n'ay peu encor découurir iusques icy.