mind that, as these native
races have so little literature in their own language, the sooner they
learned English the better for them. The result was that all the
lessons were in the two languages, with a decided preference for the
English as their studies advanced.

This was the first opportunity the boys had had of seeing the methods,
by which Mr Evans's syllabic characters were taught to the Indians.
With a home-made blackboard, and a very white kind of clay as a
substitute for chalk, these syllabic characters were put down upon the
board like the alphabet, and there to be studied like the A, B, C's. It
was committed to memory. The peculiarity about it, as the name
"syllabic" implies, is that each character is a syllable, and so there
is really no spelling in the language.

These are phonetic in character, and so, when the thirty-six characters
are impressed upon the memory, all that remains to be done is to open
the book, be it Bible, Testament, hymn book, prayer book, or catechism,
and begin to read; no long, tedious efforts at learning to spell first
words of one syllable, then words of two syllables, and so on. Each
character is a syllable, and thus the method of learning to read is so
simple that the intelligent boys and girls learn to read in their own
language in a few weeks. Even many of the old people, when they
renounce their pagan life and become Christians, readily get to
understand these characters and learn to read.

With the mastery of English, and learning to read in the ordinary way,
the work is very much slower. Still even here there is some progress,
and the visitors were all pleased with the intelligence and aptitude of
the scholars, both boys and girls. Mr Ross, who understood their
language perfectly, at Mr Evans's request conducted the examinations,
and Mrs Ross presented the prizes.

After the hearty lunch, which was very much enjoyed by the youngsters--
for Indians have glorious appetites--the sports and competitions for
various prizes began.

The highest prize, a good gun, presented by Mr Ross for archery, was
won by a son of Mamanowatum, "Big Tom," and richly did he deserve it.
At a hundred yards he sent every arrow of his well-filled quiver
whizzing through a paper hoop not three feet in diameter. For this
prize there were several competitors, and some of the lads did well; but
only the winner sent every arrow through, so this one was easily
decided.

The "many arrow" prize