We have just received a copy of the Hymns in the Chinook Jargon Language, compiled by Rev. Mr. Eells, missionary of the American Missionary Association. It is not a ponderous volume like those in use in our American churches, with twelve or fifteen hundred hymns, but a modest pamphlet of thirty pages, containing both the Indian originals and the English translations. The tunes include, among others, “Happy Land,” “Greenville,” “Bounding Billow,” “John Brown,” and the “Hebrew Children.” The hymns are very simple, and often repeat all but the first line. The translations show the poverty of the language to convey religious ideas.
One hymn reads—
“Always Jesus is very strong,
So his Paper (the Bible) says.”
Another we give in full, and in both original and translation, as part of the words of the Jargon will be seen to be English:
HEAVEN.
Chorus—Jesus mitlite kopa Saghalie
Kunamoxt konoway tillikums kloshe.
2. Yahwa tillikums wake klahowya,
Wake sick tumtum, halo till,
Halo mimoluse, wake mesachie,
Wake polaklie, halo cole.—Chorus.
3. Yahwa tillikums mitlite kwanesum,
Hiyu houses, hiyu sing;
Papa, mama, pe kloshe tenas;
Ovacut yaka chicamin pil.—Chorus.
4. Jesus potlatch kopa siwash,
Spose mesika, hias kloshe,
Konoway iktas mesika tikegh,
Kopa Saghalie kwanesum.—Chorus.
Tune, “Greenville.”