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.
[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.
[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)