Some of the arguments adduced in support of the favourite opinion, that the American tribes are the long lost remnant of the children of Israel, certainly require no answer. An intimate acquaintance with many languages is now so widely diffused, as to supersede the necessity of remarking, or of proving, that a strong similarity in the sound of some few words of different languages, even though they should be found similar in meaning, does not establish the fact of community of origin; and the wide dissimilarity between the American and the Hebrew, and its cognate dialects, in the one particular, of the compounding of words, is probably, to the learned, conclusive proof that our tribes are, in no sort, derived from the Hebrew stock.
[63] In Mr. M’Kenney’s “Tour of the Lakes,” p. 202, 205, some account is given of Na-na-bou-jou, and the renovation of the earth after the deluge, which agrees, in most particulars, very closely with the traditions among the Attawwaws and Menomonies. But these last relate it with the following addition: “When the earth, which was found in the claws and in the mouth of the muskrat, began to expand itself upon the surface of the water, Na-na-bou-jou sat, day after day, watching its enlargement. When he was no longer able to see the extent of it, he sent out a wolf, and told him to run around all the ground, and then return to him, that he might thus know how large it had become. The wolf was absent only a short time, and returned. After some time he sent him out the second time, with similar directions, and he was gone two years. Again, after this, he sent him out, and he returned no more. Then Na-na-bou-jou gave the animals, all of whom he called Ne-she-mah, (my younger brother,) each his own peculiar kind of food. He also told such of them as were to be for food for men, that he had given them to his uncles, and they must expect, from time to time, to be hunted and killed; he also enjoined it upon them, that as long as men should choose a speedy and merciful method of killing them, they should make no resistance; but, in cases of wanton and cruel injury, they might turn to resist.”
It is also to be observed, that this renovation of the earth is clearly distinguished, in the traditions of the Attawwaws, from the original creation, which was long previous. How much of the instructions of the Jesuits, and of other whites, may now be combined in these legends, it is difficult to say. But they relate that men, before the flood, though they had been long before upright and good, had now become exceedingly degenerate; but they do not assign this as the cause for which the deluge was brought upon the earth. They say that the younger brother of Na-na-bou-jou was slain by the Great Spirit, the father of both, and it was in grief and in anger that Na-na-bou-jou himself caused the earth to be overwhelmed. To so great an extent did he carry his resentment against the Great Spirit, and the other Spirits, that they, with the hope of appeasing him, restored his brother to life. But Na-na-bou-jou said, “No, my brother, this cannot be, that any should die and come again to live here as before; return again to the place to which they had sent you; it is there that many of my uncles and aunts must come every year. You shall be the friend and the protector of those, as I am of the living, who are here on this earth.” He returned accordingly, and it is this brother of Na-na-bou-jou, who is now spoken of as Ning-gah-be-ar-nong Man-i-to, (the western god,) though this is not his name, by which he was known to his brother. He is the god of the country of the dead, the towns of the Je-bi-ug, which are always towards the setting sun.
[64] Waw-bun-oank-tus-e-kwa.
[65] Of the origin of the name Chip-pe-wi-yan, by which, since Hearne and M’Kenzie, these people have been called, it may now be difficult to give any satisfactory account. A very intelligent person among the Ojibbeways asserts, that the name is derived from that language, and is only a vicious pronunciation of the compound word O-jee-gwi-yan, which means the skin of the fisher weasel. But the Chip-pe-wi-yans, in their own country, have no knowledge of the animal, and it is not easy to imagine how the name of its skin should have been fixed upon by them as a distinctive appellation. They are called by the Canadians, and many white men residing in the Athavasca country, “Mountaineers,” which appellation they derive from the country of bleak and snowy rocks, which they inhabit. Tanner thinks the name O-jee-gwi-yah-nug may be derived from a word which means, “To pierce with an awl a fold of skin.”
[66] A is to be sounded as in fate; ah as in father; the still broader sound is marked by aw, or au. The other English vowels are less ambiguous. C only used before h, and the sound thus indicated is never to be compounded with that of K. G is always hard, as in go; J always soft, as in June. At the end of words it has the sound of the English dge, as in knowledge; zh sounds as s in pleasure.
Several of the consonant sounds are used interchangeably, not only in different dialects, but even in the same, and by people of the same band: thus, m for n, g for k, or t for either, b for p, d for t, l for n, and r for either of these. In the Cree dialect, for example, the word, e-rin-ne signifies man; in the Ojibbeway it is e-nin-ne; in some other dialect approaching the Delaware, it is il-len-ni; in the Delaware, according to Zeisberger, len-no; in the Menomonie e-nain, or e-nai-new, when the meaning of the verb substantive is combined. This observation should be borne in mind by all who take the trouble to compare and examine the written words of any Indian language. To many of the Algonkin dialects the sound of b is entirely foreign; others have no r. Many of the guttural and nondescript sounds of the Chippewyan, as well as several of those in the Winnebago, and the nasal in the Algonkin, cannot be represented by our alphabet.
[67] Wah-wia-ke-mut? With whom doth he We-ge-wam? This is similar to the Greek in John i. 14. “The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; εσκηνωσεν εν ημιν, literally, tabernacled among us.”
[68] This word, which means, as here used, back, or off the routes of communication, has been translated, or rather paraphrased by the traders, in the lands. No-pe-mik means, also, at the back side of a house, etc.
[69] From this example compared with the preceding, we may see how flexible are the words in these dialects, when used in combination; nin-ne-wy-gun instead of a-nin-ne o-kun-nun.