that, according to the Israelitish custom both of mourning, and
employing mourners for their dead, and calling weeping, the lifting up
of their voices to God, the Choktah literally observe the same custom;
and both they and the Chikkasah term a person, who through a pretended
religious principle bewails the dead, _Yah-ah_, “Ah God!” and one, who
weeps on other occasions, _Yāhma_, “pouring out salt tears to, or before
God;” which is similar to יהמי. When a person weeps very bitterly, they
say, _Yahmishto_, which is a compounded word, derived from יה, and ומי,
with the initial part of the divine name, _Ishtohoollo_, subjoined, to
magnify the idea, according to the usage of the Hebrews. When the divine
penman is describing the creation, and the strong purifying wind, which
swept along the surface of the waters, he calls it, “the air, or
spirit;” and, more significantly, “the wind of God,” or a very great
wind: and, in other parts of the divine oracles, great hail, a {58}
great lion, and the like, are by the same figure, called the hail of
God. They also apply the former words, _Yah-ah_, _Yah-ma_, and the like,
to express the very same ideas through all the moods and tenses as
_Cheyaàras_, “I shall weep for you;” _Sawa Cheyaàra Awa_, “Wife, I will
not weep for you.” And when the violence of their grief for the
deceased, is much abated, the women frequently, in their plaintive
notes, repeat _Yo Hé (tà) Wāh, Yo Hé (tà) Weh, Yò Hé ta Há, Yo Hê tà
Héh_; with a reference probably to the Hebrew custom of immoderately
weeping and wailing for their dead, and invoking the name of God on such
doleful occasions; and which may have induced these supposed red Hebrews
to believe the like conduct, a very essential part of religious duty.
_Neetak Yah-ah_ signifies “a fast day,” because they were then humbly to
say _Ah_, and afflict their souls before YAH. In like manner, _Yah Abe_
signifies “one who weeps for having killed, or murdered another.” Its
roots are יה, _Yah_, their continual war-period, and, אבל, _Abele_,
signifying “sorrow or mourning;” for, as killing, or murdering, is an
hostile act, it cannot be drawn from אבה, which signifies brotherly
love, or tender affection. _Nana-Yah-Abe_ describes a person weeping,
while another is killing him. Now, as _Nana_ is “a relation,” _Yah_
“God,” and _Abe_ as above, the true meaning seems to be, “One, like
bleeding Abele, weeping to God.” Likewise their name for salt, _Hawa_,
may inform us, that though at present they use no salt in their
religious offerings, they forbore it, by reason of their distant
situation from the sea-shore, as well as by the danger of blood
attending the bringing it through an enemy’s country; for, according to
the idiom of their language, if they had not thought salt an essential
part of the law of sacrificature, they most probably, would not have
derived it from the two last syllables of the great divine name; whereas
they double the consonant, when they express water, without drawing it
from the clear fountain of living waters, YO HE WAH.
With the Hebrews, as before observed[XIV], טפל, _Tephale_, signifies
“shaking or pulling of the hand, cohesion, conjunction, or entering into
society;” and “praying, or invoking.” In conformity to that original
standard, when the Indians would express a strong, lasting friendship,
they have no {59} other way, than by saying, _Aharattlè-la pheena
chemanumbóle_, “I shall firmly shake hands with your discourse, or
speech.”
Footnote XIV:
Page 42.
When two nations of Indians are making, or renewing peace with each
other, the ceremonies and solemnities they use, carry the face of great
antiquity, and are very striking to a curious spectator, which I shall
here relate, so far as it suits the present subject. When strangers of
note arrive near the place, where they design to contract new
friendship, or confirm their old amity, they send a messenger a-head, to
inform the people of their amicable intention. He carries a swan’s wing
in his hand, painted all over with streaks of white clay, as an
expressive emblem of their embassy. The next day, when they have made
their friendly parade, with firing off their guns and whooping, and have
entered the beloved square, their chieftain, who is a-head of the rest,
is met by one of the old beloved men, or magi, of the place. He and the
visitant approach one another, in a bowing posture. The former says,
_Yò, Ish la chu Anggòna?_ “Are you come a friend in the name of God?”
Or, “Is God with you, friend?” for, _Yo_ is a religious contraction of
_Yohewah_,—_Ish_ “the man,” _La_ a note of joy, _Chu_ a query, and
_Anggona_ “a friend.” The other replies, _Yah—Arahre-O, Anggona_, “God
is with me, I am come, a friend, in God’s name.” The reply confirms the
meaning of the questionary salute, in the manner before explained. The
magus then grasps the stranger with both his hands, around the wrist of
his right hand, which holds some green branches—again, about the
elbow—then around the arm, close to his shoulder, as a near approach to
the heart. Then his immediately waving the eagles tails over the head of
the stranger, is the strongest pledge of good faith. Similar to the
Hebrew word, _Phále_ with the Indians, signifies “to wave,” and likewise
to shake; for they say, _Skooba—Phále_, “shaking one’s head.” How far
the Indian oath, or manner of covenanting, agrees with that of the
Hebrews, on the like solemn occasion, I refer to the intelligent reader.
Their method of embracing each other, seems to resemble also that custom
of the Hebrews, when a stranger became surety for another, by giving him
his wrist; to which Solomon alludes, “If thou hast stricken hand with
the stranger, &c.”—Their common method of greeting each other, is
analogous with the above; the host only says, _Ish-la Chu?_ and the
guest replies, _Arahre-O_, “I am come in the name of O E A,” or YO HE
WAH. {60}
When _O_ is joined to the end of words, it always denotes a superlative,
according to their universal figurative abbreviations of the great
beloved name; thus with the Chikkasah, _Isse_, “deer,” and _Isse-O_,
“very great deer;” _Yanása_, “a buffalo,” _Yanas-O_, “a very
extraordinary great buffalo;” which is, at least, as strong a
superlative, as אל ביח אל, signifying “the house of the Omnipotent,” or
“the temple.”
With the Cheerake Indians, _A (wàh tà) howwe_ signifies “a great
deer-killer:” it is compounded of _Ahowwe_, “a deer,” _Wah_—the period
of the divine name, and _Ta_, a note of plurality. The title, “the
deer-killer of God for the people,” was, since my time, very honourable
among them, as its radical meaning likewise imports. Every town had one
solemnly appointed; him, whom they saw the Deity had at sundry times
blessed with better success than the rest of his brethren, in supplying
them with an holy banquet, that they might eat, and rejoice, before the
divine essence. But now it seems, by reason of their great intercourse
with foreigners, they have left off that old social, religious custom;
and even their former noted hospitality. I will also observe, that
though necessity obliged them to apply the bear’s-grease, or oil, to
religious uses, they have no such phrase as _(Wah ta) eeōna_; not
accounting the bear so clean an animal as the deer, to be offered, and
eaten in their religious friendly feasts; where they solemnly invoked,
ate, drank, sung, and danced in a circular form, to, and before, YO HE
WAH.
The Indian dialects, like the Hebrew language, have a nervous and
emphatical manner of expression.—The Indians do not personify inanimate
objects, as did the oriental heathens, but their style is adorned with
images, comparisons, and strong metaphors like the Hebrews; and equal in
allegories to any of the eastern nations. According to the ages of
antiquity, their war-speeches, and public orations, always assume a
poetical turn, not unlike the sound of the measures of the celebrated
Anacreon and Pindar. Their poetry is seldom exact in numbers, rhymes, or
measure: it may be compared to prose in music, or a tunable way of
speaking. The period is always accompanied with a sounding vehemence, to
inforce their musical speech: and the music is apparently designed to
please the ear, and affect the passions. {61}
After what hath been said of their language, it may be proper here to
shew how they accent the consonants: I shall range them in the order of
our alphabet, except those they pronounce after our manner. When _CH_
begins a word, or is prefixed to a vowel, it conveys a soft sound, as
_Cháa_, “high;” but otherwise it is guttural: as is _D_, which is
expressed by fixing the tip of the tongue between the teeth, as _Dawi_,
for David. _G_ is always guttural, as we accent _Go_. They cannot
pronounce _Gn_; and they have not the _Hh_, neither can it be expressed
in their dialects, as their leading vowels bear the force of guttural
consonants. They have not the JOD, as I can any way recollect, or get
information of; nor can they repeat it, any nearer than _Chot_. They
pronounce _K_, as in _Ko_; _L_ and _N_, as _D_—_S_, by fixing the tongue
to the lower teeth; _T_ like _D_, as in the old Hibernian, or Celtic
affirmative, _Ta_. They cannot pronounce _V_, or _X_; they call the
governor of Moveel, (Mobille) _Goweno-Moweeleh_: and they have not a
word which begins or ends with _X_. _KS_ are always divided into two
syllables; as _Hak-se_, “mad,” &c. They have not the letter _Z_; much
less any such harsh sound as _Tz_, although they have _Tl_. As they use
the Hebrew consonants _Y_ and _W_, in their most solemn invocation YO HE
WAH, instead of the present Hebrew _Jod_ and _Vau_; so they seem to
exclude them intirely out of their various dialects: the pronunciation
therefore of the Hebrew characters, which are supposed to convey the
other sounds, they are unacquainted with; and those which seem to be
transposed, may be clearly ascertained by persons of proper capacity and
leisure, by comparing a sufficient number of Hebrew and Indian words
together. The Indian accents, _Oo_, and _O_, _Qu_, and _Tl_, may, prove
a pretty good key to speculative enquirers.
_Tl_ often occur in their words; as _Tlumba_, “to bleed with a lancet,
to bore, scoop, or make any thing hollow;” and _Heettla_, “to dance.”
And the South-Americans, we are told, had likewise the same sound, as in
that national name, _Tlaskala_: it seems to have been universal over the
extensive continent. And, from a similarity of the Hebrew manners,
religious rites, civil and martial customs, we have a strong presumptive
proof, that they used the aforesaid double vowels, and likewise a single
vowel, as a termination, to give their words a soft accent: and it is
plain to me, that the Hebrew language did not sound so harsh, as it is
now commonly expressed, but like the American dialects it was
interspersed with vowels, {62} and a vowel was commonly subjoined to
each word, for the sake of a soft cadence; as _Abele_, and _Ale_,
instead of אבל, _Abel_, and אל, _Al_ &c.
The English characters cannot be brought any nearer to the true
pronunciation of the Indian words, than as above set down: so that
former writers have notoriously strayed, by writing conjecturally, or
taking things on the wing of fame. What Indian words we had, being
exceedingly mangled, either by the fault of the press, or of torturing
pens, heretofore induced skilful persons to conjecture them to be
hieroglyphical characters, in imitation of the ancient Egyptian manner
of writing their chronicles.
The Indians express themselves with a great deal of vehemence, and with
short pauses, in all their set speeches; but, in common discourse, they
express themselves according to our usual method of speech, only when
they scold each other: which I never observed, unless they were
intoxicated with spiritous liquors, or casually overheard a husband when
sober in his own family. They always act the part of a stoic philosopher
in outward appearance, and never speak above their natural key. And in
their philosophic way of reasoning, their language is the more sharp and
biting, like keen irony and satyr, that kills whom it praises. They
know, that thus they correct and subdue the first boilings of anger;
which, if unchecked, proves one of the most dangerous passions to which
human nature is subject. So that remote savages, who have heard only the
jarring screeches of night-owls, and the roaring voices of ravenous
beasts of prey, in this respect give lessons, and set a worthy example
to our most civilized nations.
I have heard several eloquent Indian leaders, just as they were ready to
set off for war, to use as bold metaphors and allegories in their
speeches—and images almost as full and animating, as the eloquent penman
of the old divine book of Job, even where he is painting, with his
strong colours, the gladness and contempt of the beautiful war-horse, at
the near approach of the enemy. I heard one of their captains, at the
end of his oration for war, tell the warriors that stood outermost, he
feelingly knew their guns were burning in their hands; their tomohawks
thirsty to drink the blood of their enemy; and their trusty {63} arrows
impatient to be on the wing; and, lest delay should burn their hearts
any longer, he gave them the cool refreshing word, “Join the holy ark,
and away to cut off the devoted enemy.” They immediately sounded the
shrill whoo-whoop, and struck up the solemn, awful song, _Yo_, &c.
In Virginia, resides the remnant of an Indian tribe, who call themselves
Sepóne;[26] which word, with the Egyptians, signifies the time of
putting their wine into vessels; derived, according to mythologists,
from _Saphan_, “to inclose or conceal.” From thence they formed the
fictitious _Tisiphone_, the punisher of sins, animated with hatred; and
also the rest of their pretended furies, from the like circumstances of
the year. Our early American writers have bestowed on these Indians an
emperor, according to the Spanish copy, calling him _Pawhatan_—contrary
to the Indian method of ending their proper names with a vowel; and have
pictured them as a separate body of fierce idolatrous canibals. We
however find them in the present day, of the same temper and religious
tenets, as the rest of the Indian Americans, in proportion to their
situation in life. Considering the nearness of Egypt to Judea, they
might have derived that appellative from the Egyptians,—especially, as
here, and in several of our American colonies, (particularly on the
north side of Susquehāna river, in Pensylvania) are old towns, called
_Kanāa_. There was about thirty years ago, a remnant of a nation, or
subdivided tribe of Indians, called _Kanāai_; which resembles the Hebrew
proper name, כנענ, (_Canaan_, or _Chanoona_). Their proper names always
end with a vowel: and they seldom use a consonant at the end of any
word[XV]. I cannot recollect {64} any exceptions but the following,
which are sonorous, and seem to be of an ancient date; _Ookkàh_, “a
swan;” _Ilpàtak_, “a wing;” _Kooshàk_, “reeds;” _Sheenuk_, “sand;”
_Shūtik_, “the skies;” _Phutchik_, “a star;” _Soonak_, “a kettle;”
_Skin_, “the eye;” _Ai-eep_, “a pond;” and from which they derive the
word _Ai-ee-pe_, “to bathe,” which alludes to the eastern method of
purifying themselves. _Ilbàk_ signifies “a hand;” and there are a few
words that end with _sh_; as _Soolish_, “a tongue,” &c.
Footnote XV:
If we consider the proximity of those Indians to a thick-settled
colony, in which there are many gentlemen of eminent learning, it will
appear not a little surprizing that the name _Canaanites_, in the
original language, according to the Indian method of expressing it, as
above, did not excite the attention of the curious, and prompt them to
some enquiry into the language, rites, and customs, of those
Aborigines: which had they effected, would have justly procured them
those eulogia from the learned world, which their society profusely
bestowed on the artful, improved strokes of a former prime magistrate
of South-Carolina, whose conduct in Indian affairs, was so exceedingly
singular, if not sordid and faulty, (as I publicly proved when he
presided there) that another year’s such management would have caused
the Cheerake to remove to the French barrier, or to have invited the
French to settle a garrison, where the late unfortunate Fort-Loudon
stood. But a true British administration succeeding, in the very
critical time, it destroyed their immature, but most dangerous
threatening scheme. This note I insert here, though rather out of
place, to shew, that the northern gentlemen have not made all those
observations and enquiries, with regard to the Indians, which might
have been reasonably expected, from so numerous and learned a body.
The Indians call the lightning and thunder, _Eloha_, and its rumbling
noise, _Rowah_, which may not improperly be deduced from the Hebrew. To
enlighten the Hebrew nation, and impress them with a reverential awe of
divine majesty, God spoke to them at Sinai, and other times during the
theocracy, with an awful or thundering voice. The greater part of the
Hebrews seem to have been formerly as ignorant of philosophy, as are the
savage Americans now. They did not know that thunder proceeded from any
natural cause, but from the immediate voice of Elohim, above the clouds:
and the Indians believe, according to this Hebrew system of philosophy,
that _Minggo Ishto Eloha Alkaiasto_, “the great chieftain of the
thunder, is very cross, or angry when it thunders:” and I have heard
them say, when it rained, thundered, and blew sharp, for a considerable
time, that the beloved, or holy people, were at war above the clouds.
And they believe that the war at such times, is moderate, or hot, in
proportion to the noise and violence of the storm.
I have seen them in these storms, fire off their guns, pointed toward
the sky; some in contempt of heaven, and others through religion—the
former, to shew that they were warriors, and not afraid to die in any
shape; much less afraid of that threatening troublesome noise: and the
latter, because their hearts directed them to assist _Ishtohoollo
Eloha_[XVI]. May not this {65} proceed from an oral tradition of the war
which the rebellious angels waged against the great Creator; and which
the ancient heathens called the war of the giants? Nothing sounds
bolder, or is more expressive, than the Cheerake name of thunder,
_Eentaquàróske_. It points at the effects and report of the battles,
which they imagine the holy people are fighting above. The small-pox, a
foreign disease, no way connatural to their healthy climate, they call
_Oonatàquára_, imagining it to proceed from the invisible darts of angry
fate, pointed against them, for their young people’s vicious conduct.
When they say, “I shall shoot,” their term is, _Ake-rooka_. The radix of
this word is in the two last syllables; the two first are expressive
only of the first person singular; as _Akeeohoosa_, “I am dead, or
lost;” and _Akeeohooséra_, “I have lost.” _Rooka_ seems to have a
reference to the Hebrew name for the holy Spirit.
Footnote XVI:
The first lunar eclipse I saw, after I lived with the Indians, was
among the Cheerake, An. 1736: and during the continuance of it, their
conduct appeared very surprizing to one who had not seen the like
before; they all ran wild, this way and that way, like lunatics,
firing their guns, whooping and hallooing, beating of kettles, ringing
horse-bells, and making the most horrid noises that human beings
possibly could. This was the effect of their natural philosophy, and
done to assist the suffering moon. And it is an opinion of some of the
East-Indians, that eclipses are occasioned by a great monster
resembling a bull-frog, which now and then gnaws one edge of the sun
and moon, and would totally destroy them, only that they frighten it
away, and by that means preserve them and their light. (A). Mooney
says that the belief that the eclipse monster can be so frightened
away was universal among primitives. (W)
The most southern old town, which the Chikkasah first settled, after the
Chokchoomah,[27], Choktah, and they, separated on our side of the
Missisippi, into three different tribes, they called _Yanèka_, thereby
inverting _Yahkàne_, the name of the earth; as their former brotherhood
was then turned into enmity[XVII]. The bold Creeks on the opposite, or
north side of them, they named _Yahnàbe_, “killing to God,” or devoting
to death; for the mid consonant expresses the present time. And their
proper names of persons, and places, are always expressive of certain
circumstances, or things, drawn from roots, that convey a fixed
determinate meaning.
Footnote XVII:
They call the earth Yahkàne, because Yah formed it, as his footstool,
by the power of his word. In allusion also hereto, Nakkàne signifies a
man, because of the mother-earth; and Nakke a bullet, or arrow. When
the Cheerake ask a person, Is it not so? they say, Wahkane? The divine
essential name, and Kane, are evidently the roots of these words.
With the Muskohge, _Algeh_ signifies “a language,” or speech: and,
because several of the Germans among them, frequently say _Yah-yah_, as
an affirmative, they call them _Yah-yah Algeh_, “Those of the
blasphemous speech;” which strongly hints to us, that they still retain
a glimpse of the third moral command delivered at Sinai, “Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” or apply the name of
YOHEWAH, thy ELOHIM, to vain, or created things. {66}
These Indians, to inculcate on their young people, that YO HE WAH is the
Author of vegetation, call the growth of vegetables, _Wahráah_, “moved
by Yohewah;” for _Aàh_ signifies to walk, or move; and the consonant is
an expletive of distinction. In like manner, _Wah-àh_ signifies, that
“the fruits are ripe,” or moved to their joy, by Yohewah. They likewise
call the flying of birds, _Wahkáàh_; as Yohewah gave them that swift
motion. And, when young pigeons are well feathered, they say, _Patche
hishshè oolphotàháh_—_Patchè_ signifies “a pidgeon,” _Hishshè_, “leaves,
hair, or feathers,” _oolpha_, or _oolpho_, “a bud,” _ta_, a note of
plurality, and _háh_ of admiration, to make it a plural superlative.
But, when the pigeons, in winter, fly to a moderate climate in great
clouds, they use the word, _Wah-àh_, which in every other application
describes vegetation, and say, _Patche Wah-àh_, “the pigeons are moved
to them by Yohewah;” which seems to allude to the quails in the
wilderness, that were miraculously sent to feed the Israelites.
Clay basons they call _Ai-am-bo_, and their old round earthen forts,
_Aiambo Cháah_, this last word signifying “high,” or tall: but a
stockade, or wooden fort, they term, _Hoorèta_, and to inswamp,
_Book-Hoore_, from _Bookse_, “a swamp,” and _Hoorèta_, “a fort, or place
of difficult access.” High waters, conveys to them, an idea only of
deepness; as _Ookka phobe_, “deep waters.” And they say, _Ookka chookòma
intáa_, “The water glides, or moves along pleasantly, or goodly.” That
the word _Intâa_, has _Ya-ah_ for its radix, is apparent from their name
for a rapid current, _Yahnāle_, “it runs with a very extraordinary
force;” the mid consonant is placed there, to give the word a suitable
vehemence of expression—and the word is compounded of יה, _Yah_, and אל,
_Ale_, two names of God. In like manner, _Yahnhà_ signifies “a
pleurisy,” fever, and the like; because they reckon, when YAH says _ha_
in anger, to any of their vicious people, he immediately fires the
blood, and makes it run violently through all the veins of the body.
_Ashtahále_ signifies the reflection of the celestial luminaries, which
is composed of two of the divine names; as אש, _Ash_, the celestial,
cherubimical name of God, signifying fire, _ta_, a contraction of the
conjunction copulative, and אל, _Ale_, the strong, or omnipotent. They
say a river, or warm victuals, is _A-shu-pa_; that is, the former is
become fordable, and the latter eatable. They here divide _Ash_ into two
syllables; and the termination alludes to the word, _Apà_, which
signifies eating. {67}