The greater number of their compounded words, (and, I believe, every one of them) which convey a virtuous or pure idea, either have some syllables of the three divine names, or visibly glance at them; or have one or two vowels of the sacred name, Yo He Wah, and generally begin with one of them; which I shall exemplify, with a few Chikkasah and Cheerake words. Isse-Ahowwè, “Deer;” Yanàsa, Buffalo, which as it begins with the divine name, Yah, contains no more of their beloved vowels: in like manner, Wahka, “cattle;” Ishke-Oochēa, “a mother.” This last seems to be drawn from Isha, the mother of all mankind. Ehó and Enekia signify “a woman.” The latter is derived from the active verb, Akekiuhah, signifying “to love ardently,” or like a woman; Nakkàne Askai, “a man.” From this word, the Chikkasah derive Nakke, the name of an arrow or bullet: and with the Cheerake Askai signifies “to fear;” as all the American brute animals were afraid of man, &c.
Words, which imply either a vicious or impure idea, generally begin with a consonant, and double those favourite vowels, either at the beginning and end, or in the middle, of such words; as Nassooba Woheea, “a wolf.” With the Chikkasah, Eassooba signifies “bewildered;” Patche, “a pigeon,” and Patche Eassooba, “a turtle-dove.” Soore and Sheeke are the Chikkasah and Cheerake names of a “Turkey-buzzard;” Choola and Choochòla, “a fox;” Shookqua and Seequa, an “opossum,” or hog; Ookoonne, “a polecat;” Ookoonna, “a badger;” Chookphe and Cheesto, “a rabbet.” The last word is derived from the defective verb Chesti, “forbear,” or do not meddle with; and rabbets were prohibited to the Israelites. In like manner, Ooppa and Ookookoo, “a night-owl;” Oophe and Keera, “a dog;” Nahoolla and U-nēhka, “white people,” or “impure animals.” The Chikkasah both corrupt and transpose the last part of the divine name, Ishtohoollo; and the Cheerake invert their magnifying termination U, to convey an impure idea. And through the like faint allusion to this divine name, Hoollo signifies “idols, pictures, or images;” a sharp-pointed sarcasm! for the word, Hoollo, signifies also “menstruous women,” who were for the time an equal abomination to the Israelites, and with whom they were to have no communion. These two words seem to bear the same analogy to each other, as אל, Al, a name of God, and אלה, Aleh, signifying the covenant of the holy One to redeem man, and אלוה, Aloah, execrated, or accursed of God, as idols were. {57}
With the Cheerake, Awwa, or Amma, signifies “water,” and Ammoi, “a river;” not much unlike the Hebrew. They likewise term salt, Hawa; and both the conjunction copulative, and “to marry,” is Tawa. The name of a wife is Awah; which written in Hebrew, makes הוה, Eve, or Eweh, the name of our general mother. So that the Indian name of a wife, is literally and emphatically, his And, “One absolutely needful for the well-being of Ish, or man;” Ishtawa (tim?) signifies “have you married?” We gain additional light from the strong significant appellative, Ish-ke, “a mother;” which is an evident contraction of Isha, the mother of Yawe, or mankind, with their favourite termination, ske, subjoined; the word becomes thus smoother than to pronounce it at its full length, Isha-ske. If we consider that the Hebrews pronounced ו, Vau, when a consonant, as W, here is a very strong, expressive gradation, through those various words, up to the divine, necessary, And, who formed and connected every system of beings; or to the Hebrew divine original YO He Wah: at the same time, we gain a probable reason why so many proper names of old Indian places, in South-Carolina, and elsewhere, along the great continent, begin with our Anglo-Saxon borrowed character, W; as Wampee, Watboo, Wappoo, Wadmolā, Wassamèsāh, &c. Chance is fluctuating, and can never act uniformly.
To elucidate the aforesaid remarks, it may not be amiss to observe, 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.”
[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}