Page:IJAL vol 1.djvu/57

 NO. I

��UNCLASSIFIED LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTHEAST

��49

��Akokisa. My belief that this tribe, or group of tribes, belonged to the Atakapan stock, has been absolutely confirmed by the dis- covery of a vocabulary of forty-five words in an unpublished manuscript among the valu- able documents in the Edward E. Ayer collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago. This vocabulary, and an equally valuable Karankawa vocabulary in the same manu- script, will be reproduced and fully discussed in a future number of this Journal. From a second document in the Ayer collection I obtained, however, a correction of my position regarding the classification of two little tribes on Bayou La Fourche, near the mouth of the Mississippi, the Washa and Chawasha. These I had considered Muskhogean; but the author of the document just alluded to, who seems to have been none other than Bienville, and should therefore know whereof he writes, not only states that these tribes have always spoken almost the same language ("ont toujours par!6 presque la meme langue"), but

��begins his account of the Chitimacha by saying that the Tchioutimachas, who live six leagues from the Houmas on the left bank of the river, are of the same genius and the same character as the Tchaouachas and the Ouachas, with whom they have always been allied, and who also speak almost the same language ("Les Tchioutimachas qui demeur- ent a six lieiies des Houmas sur la gauche du fleuue sont du me'me genie, et du meme caractere que les Tchaouachas, et les Ouachas auxquels ils ont toujours et6 alliez, et dont ils parlent aussy presque la meme langue").

This carries the stock boundary of the Chitimacha eastward over all of Bayou La Fourche and as far as the mouths of the Mississippi.

In general, it may be said that the number, position, and boundaries of all of the linguistic groups of the Southeast, at least those east- ward of the Mississippi River, are now satis- factorily established, such lacunae as exist being small and of little apparent importance.

��BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY WASHINGTON, D.C.

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