Let us hope, therefore, that nothing will occur to mar this beautiful picture of sylvan life; that the McDougal colony will wax stronger, till every acre of the beautiful prairie is forced to yield tribute to the plow and sickle.
VIII. STORY OF SE-QUO-YAH, THE CHEROKEE CADMUS.
About the year 1763 a child was born to an Indian woman in the old Cherokee country of Georgia. He was on his father's side the grandson of a German by the name of Guess, or Ghiest, and was given the name George Guess, though he is better known as Se-Quo-Yah. He was early impressed with the thought of the superiority of the white over the red race, and wisely concluded that much of this was due to the white man's learning, and ability to represent his thoughts on paper in a way to mean the same thing to every one who saw it; unlike the picture writing then in vogue among the Cherokees, which was necessarily lacking in clearness and liable to misinterpretation.
He could neither read nor speak any language other than Cherokee, but he was a close observer, and a mechanical genius, and determined to invent a system of writing his language. In some manner, Se-Quo-Yah found out that the writing of the white man consisted in the use of characters to represent sounds. At first he thought of using one character for each word; but this was not possible because there are so many words it complicated matters too much. He finally concluded that as there were eighty-six syllables in Cherokee, he would form a series of eighty-six characters to represent them. He found that these characters could be so combined as to represent every word in the Cherokee language. Many of these characters were taken from an English spelling-book which he managed to get hold of. Some are Greek characters, and others are letters of the English alphabet reversed, the rest were specially invented.
It happened, too, from the structure of the Cherokee language or dialect, that the syllabic alphabet is also in the nature of a grammar; so that those who know the language by ear and master the alphabet, can at once read and write. Owing to the extreme simplicity of this system, it can be acquired in a few days. Some have even learned it in one day; which is certainly very remarkable.
So much for the invention. The reader is no doubt interested in knowing more of the history of the inventor of this wonderful alphabet, which has proven such a blessing to the Cherokees.
The only remarkable thing about Se-Quo-Yah's early years appears to have been his preference for playing alone and building houses of sticks in the woods, rather than to join in the sports of Indian children of his age. His mother owned a few cows that furnished her the means of living. When her son was grown to be a sturdy boy he built a substantial milk house, where he helped his mother with the dairy work, showing himself an expert dairyman and adding materially to her profits.
He early displayed great interest in natural forms and unusual power of observation, and developed much skill in representing what he saw in drawing. His pictures were at first as crude as the common picture-writing of his people; but with practice his animals and men assumed more and more a living shape and an accurate expression of action. He became famed as an artist, and many visited his mother's cabin to see his pictures and to watch the wonderful process of their creation.
When he had reached early manhood this same artistic faculty led him to desire to create objects of beauty, and he turned his attention to making the silver ornaments so much prized by his people, such as armlets, brooches and clasps. There was great demand for these products of his hands, owing to the novelty of their design and the fineness of their execution. But Se-Quo-Yah possessed a practical vein of artistic talent. Not content with making silver trinkets, he became a blacksmith, and turned out from his forge the finest spades, rakes and hoes, which were highly appreciated by some of his tribesmen who failed to perceive the artistic quality of his silver work.