PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
In submitting this small volume to the public, I have little to urge in recommendation of it, further than to say that it is strictly accurate; a sojourn of over nine years in the Dieyerie country, and constant intercourse with the tribe, having familiarised me with their language, and their manners and customs.
I deprecate criticism only as regards my notes on the construction of the language, which, unassisted by any works of reference, I have been able to base alone on the analogy of words, and, therefore, this part of my work may be defective, but I trust not so much so, but that it may form a foundation on which a philologist may build a more elevated structure.
The motives urging me to publication are twofold—firstly, that I thought a record of the characteristics and tongue of a race fast dying out, might possess an interest hereafter; and, secondly, but chiefly, because an acquaintance with them may be of some assistance to those pious missionaries and others, who are extending so greatly inland this vast continent, civilisation, through its gracious handmaiden, Christianity.
SAMUEL GASON.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
The part I have had in the production of this work is so very subordinate, that I would willingly have omitted my name to it, had not the author, with a too great diffidence in his own labours, and a too flattering sense of my services, pressed me for it; and I consented, only on being permitted to say that I did little more than arrange and classify the interesting papers confided to my charge.
