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1. kóͅóͅhégo choołhiłná'a 'it was becoming a bit dark'. kóͅóͅhé "little, a bit' [part.]. choołhił, prog. of chaa- |...[hi- perf.]-ł-gheeł 'to become dark' [act. intr.].

2. yidoosts'áͅná'a 'he had heard it'. 3rd person perf. with 3rd person obj. of di-|...[si- perf.]-ts'íͅ 'to hear' [act. tr.]. The perfective paradigm is irregular: Sg. 1. disíts'áͅ; Sg. 2. disínts'áͅ; Sg. 3. yidoosts'áͅ or yidoots'áͅ [also, rarely, yidiists'áͅ]; Sg. 3a. ch'idoosts'áͅ or ch'idoots'áͅ [and ch'idiits'áͅ]; Du. 1. disiͅiͅts'áͅ. Since di-|, found in many verbs having to do with sound, generally takes the hi- perfective [e. g., 'ádóͅóͅndii 'he has said so'] it is possible that the above paradigm represents a stage in the shift from the hi- perfective to the si- perfective.

3. dá'iłkáyeejiͅ 'at intervals, one after another'. dá- 'just'; 'ił- reciprocal; -káyee- ?; -jiͅ 'to' [pp.; cf. Chir -zhiͅ].

1. hiiłteená'a 'he went'. 3rd person perf. of hi-|...[? perf.] -l-té 'to go, walk, run' [act. intr.]. This verb seems to be of more frequent occurrence in Mesc. than in Chir.

2. niishjaanáí 'only Owl'. niishjaa 'Owl' [no analysis]; -ná 'just, only'; -í relative.

1. gok'énádigaałná'a 'he looked down at him'. go- 'him'; k'é- 'at'; ná- 'back' plus the 3rd person imp. of di-...[si- perf.]-ghaał 'to look' [act. intr.]. ná- 'back' causes the text form to have the -d- classifier [see Grammatical Sketch, §7].

2. bizaaí ntsaago 'in a gruff voice'. Literally, 'his voice being big'. When this text was told, the informant pronounced all the -a- vowels of this sentence with an -w- timbre to imitate the quality of Owl's voice. See Ethnological Note to the English Translation of this line.

1. naańndá 'come down'. 2nd person imp. of naa-di-...[hi- perf.]-yá 'one person comes down' [act. intr.]. naa- 'down, off'; di- inceptive [?]. See passage 5, line 2 for the 3rd person perfective of this verb.

2. shiłgóͅłndi 'tell me stories'. shi- 'me'; ł- 'with, to' [pp.]. góͅłndiͅ, 2nd person imp. of go-...[hi- perf.]-ł-ndi 'to tell, narrate' [act intr.].

1. nzhónóo 'closely' > nzhóné, a relative form of nzhóͅ 'it is good, well' [3rd person imp. neut. intr. with adj. ni-] plus the subord. encl. -go.

2. doodókohéédó 'wonderful'. An unanalyzable intensifying particle.

3. ghe'nénł'áͅná'a 'you seem to be wearing,'. 2nd person of ghe'-ni-...-l-'áͅ 'to wear [a headdress of any sort]' [si- perf. neut.]. ghe'- 'in, inside'; ni- terminative; -l-'áͅ 'to have one's head in position'. Note that -ná'a, in this verb, gives a dubitative connotation. See the Ethnological Note linked to the English Translation of this line.

4. beeshíͅsíͅ 'show me the power of it'. 2nd person imp. with 1st person obj. of 0'ee-|...[hi- perf.]-ł-zíͅ 'to show, give power by means of something' [act. tr.]. ee- 'by means of'.

1. denshndáshíné 'right'. denshndá 'right [as opposed to left]' [no analysis]. -shíné > -shíͅ 'from' plus the archaic'relative -é.

2. goch'iͅiͅyóo 'to face him' > go- 'him'; ch'iͅiͅ 'toward'; -yá pp.; and -go subord. encl.

3. kádahyiijaaá'a 'he put it on for him'. ká- 'for him' plus the 3rd person perf. with 3rd person obj. of dah-|...[si- perf.]-jáásh 'to put a mass on' [act. tr.; dah- 'on']. Note that the text form, a 3rd person si perfective, lacks the s- prefix. See note 1.24, §2.

4. káik'e'iizoná'a 'he marked it for him'. ká- 'for him'; -ik'e- > -yik'e- 'on it'. 'iizo, 3rd person perf. of 'i- |...[si- perf.]-zo 'to mark' [act. intr.]. 'i-| ?. In this form, the -s- of the 3rd person si- perfective merges with the initial stem consonant.

ye'ághánáágóͅóͅdlaaná'a 'he did so with it again'. yee- 'with it'; 'ághá- 'so, thus'; náá- 'again'; góͅóͅ- > go- 'him' plus the 3rd person hi- perf. prefix; -dlaa, -d- form of the perfective stem of -lá 'to do to' [act. tr.]. The prefix náá- 'again' requires the -d- form. Cf. dá'ághágóͅóͅlaaná'a 'he did the same thing' in the fourth line of this passage. [this edition reproduces a discrepancy in Hoijer's edition between the word: dá'ághágóͅóͅlaaná'a as it is described here in the notes and it's appearance as dá'ághágóólaaná'a in the text--MEC].

niłnzhóͅnáli 'do you like it?'. ni- 'you'; ł- 'with, to'; nzhóͅ 'it is good'; -náli interrog. encl. [?].

1. ńnáhábiłnzhóͅná'a 'he liked it very much'. ńnáhá- 'very, a great deal' [procl.]; biłnzhóͅ 'he likes it; it is good with him'.

2. doo'iyáa'isht'íͅda 'I have nothing'. doo- ...-da negative; 'iyáa 'anything, something'. 'isht'íͅ 'I have' [?]; cf. 'á-ni-...-tíͅ 'to be so' and há-...tíͅ; 'to want, desire', both imp. neut. intr.

3. The last line of this passage is literally as follows: "'In spite of that, / anything / that you have told me / at every time / that I will do so it is so,' / he said to him."

k'adóo'iͅiͅdáͅáͅ'é 'it is time that we eat'. k'adóo > k'adé 'now, right now' plus -go subord. 'iͅiͅ-dáͅáͅ', a bound form of 'iͅiͅdáͅ, 1st person dual imp. with indef. obj. of -yáͅ 'to eat' [act. tr.]; -é relative.

Note that the verb 'to eat' suffers alternations of the stem initial similar to those of -yá 'one person moves'. See nndáͅ 'you will eat' [2nd person imp.] in this passage and k'adéhisháͅáͅ'é 'that which I would eat now' [1st person imp.] in passage 15. It is characteristic of both Chir. and Mesc. that stems beginning with y- combine with the prefixed consonants immediately preceding. This is also true of other Athapaskan languages. See F.-K. Li, Mattole, An Athabaskan Language [Chicago, 1930], §11, pp. 14-16.

'iyánéłizhiní 'buffalo'. A compound of 'iyáné 'cattle'; 'łizhiͅ 'it is black' [3rd person imp. neut. with prefixes łi-ni- adj.]; and the relative -í. 'iyáné > 'iyáͅ 'he eats' [3rd person imp. with indef. obj.] plus the archaic relative -é.

It is curious that the Mesc. word for 'buffalo' should have as a base the word for 'cattle' since it is very likely that the Mesc. knew the buffalo long before they encountered cattle. It is probable, however, that 'iyáné originally meant 'buffalo' and was made to include 'cattle' when these animals became important in.Mesc. culture. Then, when the necessity for distinguishing the two animals arose, this compound was devised to designate the buffalo, by then the less important animal to the culture.

1. dánaach'íłk'eh 'both of them', also heard dá'naach'íłk'eh. I cannot explain naa-; the usual form is dá'ch'íłk'eh. Cf. also dánahíłk'eh 'both of us, both of you'; dágółk'eh, dá'łk'eh, and dá'gobíłk'eh 'both of them'; and Linguistic Note to Chiricahua text 1.1, §4.

2. hóóhgo nk'eh'ooshghał 'you have fed me well'. hóóhgo 'good, fine, well' [part.]. n-, reduced form of ni- 'you'; -k'eh 'by reason of, because of [pp.]; 'ooshghał, the 1st person perf. with indef. obj. of ...[hi- perf.]-ł-gha[ 'to eat meat-like substances' [act. tr.].

shdeeyáná'a 'he had started to move'. shdeeyá 'he had started to move' [3a person perf. with di- inceptive prefix] is contracted from ch'ideeyá.

dásínzhóͅgo 'exactly'. dásí- ', just, exactly': nzhóͅ 'it is good'; -go subord encl.

1. shóͅóͅdé 'wife'. This word means literally 'friend, partner' but is restricted in usage to the coyote stories. See Linguistic Note to Chiricahua text 10.3, §1.

2. góbá'égóͅłtił 'spread [a robe] for them'. góbá- 'for them' > góbi- 3rd person dual pronoun plus á- 'for'. This special form for the 3rd person dual [object and poss.; see Grammatical Sketch, §§6 and 11] is more often used in Mesc. than in Chir.

'égóͅłtił, 2nd person imp. of 0é-go-...[si- perf.]-ł-tił 'to spread out a fabric-like object' [act. intr.]. No further analysis is possible.

3. ńgodibiͅiͅ 'they will sit down'. 3rd person imp. of ní-di-...[si- perf. -biͅiͅ- 'several sit down' [act. intr.]. ní- is probably ni- terminative, that prefix taking a high tone when it precedes a prefix beginning with -d-. di- inceptive. The deictic prefix go- functions here as a 3rd person dual [or plural] subject.

ńch'ideebiͅná'a 'they sat down'. 3a person perf. of the verb noted in 2:25, §3. Note that the -s- of the si- perf. is lacking. See note 1.24, §2.

lóngo 'you are crazy'. 2nd person of ló-|...-go 'to be crazy' [imp. neut. intr.]. This is a form derived by conjugation from lóogo 'crazy, he is crazy' > Spanish loco 'crazy'. See Linguistic Note to Chiricahua text 38.21.

háahka 'you have come for'. 2nd person dual perf. of há-...[hi- perf.]-ká 'several come for' [act. intr.]. há- 'for'. I am not certain of this analysis, nor can I explain the -h- before the stem of the text form.

The first line of this passage is literally as follows: "Those / that you are so / being just so / those / people / you will make them so for me." See Ethnological note to the English translation of Mescalero text 2.5.

1. nankeesh 'sit down'. 2nd person dual of ni-...[si- perf.]-keesh 'two persons sit down' [act. intr.; ni- terminative]. Cf. the stem forms of this theme, viz., -keesh, -kééj [alternating with -ké], -kish, -kish, -keesh, with the corresponding Chir. forms: -kee, -ké, -ke, -ke, -kee.

2. Niishjaandénlíͅne 'those who were Owl people'. niishjaa 'Owl'; ndé 'people'; nlíͅ 'they are' [3rd person imp. neut. intr. with adj. prefix ni-]; -ne relative suffix denoting a group or class of people.

1. naashégodó 'one side also'. naashé 'one side' [naa- ?; -shé 'side']; -go subord. encl.; -dó 'also'.

2. náhakosíbitł'áshíͅdóná'a 'also from the north'. náhakosí 'north'; bitł'á 'under it'; -shíͅ 'from'; -dó 'also'. The Mesc. and Chir. idiom corresponding to our 'in such and such a direction' is 'under such and such a direction'. In Chir, the postposition -yaa 'under' is usually employed, however [see e. g., Linguistic Note to Chiricahua text 33.4, §1].

t'á 'feather'. In Chir., this noun occurs only in the possessed form -t'á'.

Niishjaanndéń 'Owl man'. Note that, in Mesc. , the word for 'man, person, people, etc.' occurs both in the Chir. form ndé and in the form it has in this compound, nndé.

hak'adi > 'ha- interrog. pronoun plus k'adi 'now, then'.

This passage is literally: "Owl man / yes / that he will say, / together / yes / no / they had said, it is said."

dá'iłéé'é 'together' is unanalyzable.

'itsiͅntł'idzí nóółtsaaí doodádaach'ó'aałhát'édaí 'hard dry meat that could not be chewed'. -tsiͅiͅ 'meat'; ntł'idz 'it is hard' [3rd person imp. neut. intr. with adj. prefix ni-]; nóółtsaa 'it is dry' [no analysis]; daach'ó'aał 3a person distrib. opt. of ...[hi- perf.]-'aał 'to chew' [act. tr.].