ACQUIRING THE LANGUAGE
Our travellers were delighted with the appearance of Moose Fort and its
immediate surroundings. The little church, the line of neat cottages with
their gardens in front, and the new factory buildings, lying irregularly
along the banks of the river, gave the place almost the air of an English
village. Towering picturesquely above all, was the old fort, strongly
built and loopholed, now serving the purpose of a salesroom, but once
needed as a place of defence from attacks of the Indians. Poplars, pines,
and juniper formed a green background, and the place bore a smiling and
pleasant aspect, altogether surprising to those who had expected to
arrive on a barren and desolate shore.
Mr. Horden was received with unmistakable joy by the people, who had long
been left without a teacher, his predecessor in the office having quitted
Moose Fort the year before. He was at once at home amongst the Indians,
and immediately set about learning their difficult language.
Greek and Latin he declared to be tame affairs ‘in comparison with
Sakehao and Ketemakalemāo, with their animate and inanimate forms, their
direct and inverse, their reciprocal and reflective, their absolute
and relative, their want of an infinitive mood, and their two first
persons plural. This I found very troublesome for a long time; to use
_kelananow_ for we, when I meant _I_ and _you_; and _nelanan_, when I
wished to express _I_ and _he_. If merely the extra pronoun had required
to be learnt, I should not have minded, but I did mind very much when I
found in the verb the pronoun inseparably mixed up with the verb, and
that in portions of it the whole of the personal pronouns were expressed
by different inflections of the verb. But I had the very strongest of
motives to urge me forward: the desire to speak to the Indian in his own
language the life-giving words of the Gospel.
‘I had been at my new home but a few days before I set to work in
earnest. The plan I adopted was this: every week, with the assistance
of an interpreter, I translated a small portion of the service of the
English Church. This I read over and over again, until I had nearly
committed it to memory, and was able to read it on Sunday. The Lord’s
Prayer and a few hymns I found already translated, and I soon added a
few hymns more. Chapters of the Bible and sermons were rendered by the
interpreter sentence by sentence. Rather tedious, but we improved fast,
and I shall not soon forget the expression of surprise and joy on the
countenances of my congregation, when, after a few months, I made my
first address to them without an interpreter—but I am anticipating.
‘My plan was threefold. I provided myself with two books and a living
instructor; the latter a young Indian with a smattering of English. The
first of the two books was a small one to carry in my pocket; in it I
wrote a few questions with the aid of the interpreter. Having learnt
them, I went into an Indian tent, sat down among its inmates, drew out
book and pencil, and put one of my questions. One of those present would
at once give me an answer, entering generally into a long explanation, of
which I did not understand a word. However, they, knowing my aim, talked
on, and I listened, wondering what it was all about. Getting gradually
bewildered, I returned home. I repeated the process again and again,
and after a few days light began to shine out of darkness, the jumble
divided itself into words, the book and pencil no longer lay idle, every
word that I could separate from the others was at once jotted down, all
were copied out, translated as far as possible, and committed to memory;
and presently I got not only to catch up the words, but likewise to
understand a good deal of what was said.
‘The second book was a much larger one, and ruled. Having this and
pen and ink by my side, I would call an Indian, and he would take his
seat opposite; I then made him understand that I wished him to talk
about something, and that I wished to write down what he said. He would
begin to speak, but too fast; I shook my head, and said, _Pākack,
pākack_—“slowly, slowly,” and at a more reasonable rate he would
recommence. As he spoke, so I wrote, writing on every other line. We sat
thus until I could bear no more. Then, with the interpreter’s assistance,
I wrote the translation of each word directly under it, thus making an
interline. The work was a little trying, but by it I gained words, I
gained words in combination, I gained the inflections of words, I gained
the idiom of the language, I gained a knowledge of the mind of the
Indian, the channel in which his ideas ran, I gained a knowledge of his
mode of life, the trials and privations to which he was subjected.
‘Now as to the Indian lad. I began by drilling him in the powers of
an English verb, and after a few days we said a lesson to each other,
he saying—First person singular, I love; second person singular, thou
lovest, &c. Then I going on with mine, thus:
_Ne sakehou_ I love him.
_Ke sakehou_ Thou lovest him.
_Sakehao_ He loves him.
_Ne sakehanam_ We love him.
_Ke sakehanou_ We love him.
_Ke sakehawou_ You love him.
_Sakehawuh_ They love him.
Then the inverse form:
_Ne sakehik_ Me loves he.
_Ke sakehik_ Thee loves he.
_Sakehiko_ He is loved by him.
_Ne sakihikonau_ Us loves he.
_Ke sakehikonau_ Us loves he.
_Ke sakehikowou_ You loves he.
_Sakehikowuk_ They are loved by him.
And so on and on. The subjunctive mood, with its _iks_ and _uks_ and
_aks_ and _chucks_, was terribly formidable, still the march was onward,
every week the drudgery became less and the pleasure greater, and every
week I was able to enter more and more into conversation with those who
formed my spiritual charge.
‘In my talk I made mistakes enough. Once I had a class of young men
sitting around me, and was telling them of the creation of Adam and Eve.
All went well until I came to speak of Eve’s creation; I got as far as
“God created Eve out of one of Adam’s ——,” when something more than a
smile broke forth from my companions. Instead of saying, “out of one of
Adam’s ribs,” I had said, “out of one of Adam’s pipes.” _Ospikakun_ is
“his rib,” and _ospwakun_, “his pipe.”
‘After eight months I never used an interpreter in my public
ministrations, and I had been in the country but a few days more than
a twelvemonth, when, standing by the side of good Bishop Anderson,
I interpreted his sermon to a congregation of Albany Indians. I say
this with deep thankfulness to God for assisting me in my formidable
undertaking.’