What you fail to mention is that Custer made the diacritical error, so
common among those attempting ASL(Apache as a Second Language), of stressing the antipenultimate rather than the penultimate syllable. This, coupled with his prominent New England accent, had the unfortunate result of changing his simple phalocrophobic tonsorial request to the culturally offensive, "Your mother's wigwam smells like buffalo grease". The insulted Apache had no choice but to convert the stylish crewcut he had intended for George to a slightly more radical do, chic but sadly fatal.
The settlers took many wonderful words from the Native Americans, but one which regrettably never made it into our everyday lexicon, although I try to use it frequently, is chargoggagomanchaugagochaubunagungamaug which means, "You fish on that side, we'll fish on this side, and nobody will fish in the middle." |
