By-and-by we’ll go home to meet them.
_Chinook._--Soon we will go and see [him].
_Twana._--Soon we will go and see him.
_Clallam._--Far off in the good land.
These sentences can be mixed up in these languages in any way, make good
sense, and mean almost precisely the same. I found no other hymn in
which I could do likewise, but the chorus to “I’m going home” can be
rendered similarly in the English, Twana, and Clallam.
Clallams are much more natural singers than the Twanas. For this reason,
and also because there have never been enough whites in church to do the
singing for them, there has never been any difficulty in inducing them
to sing in church. But for very many years it was different with the
Twanas. When the services were first begun among them the singing was in
English and they were not expected to take part in it. When hymns were
first made in the Chinook jargon there were so many whites to sing in
church, that the Indians did not seem to take hold. They would sing well
enough at their camps, the boys would sing loud enough when alone at the
boarding-house or outdoors, but when they came to church they were
almost mum. The whites and the school-girls did most of it. It is only
within the past year or two that a perceptible change has been made for
the better.