Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/273

 APP. NO. I.] GRAMMATICAL NOTICES. HURONS. 237 of relative declension which embraces in itself the possessive pronoun, mens, tuus, suus ; for instance, iatacan, ' my brother,' aiatacan, ' my brothers ' ; satacan, ' thy brother,' tsatacan, ' thy brothers ' ; otacan, * his brother,' atatacan, ' his brothers.' As to cases, they have them all, or they supply them by very well adapted particles. The wonder is that all their nouns may be universally con- jugated. Thus gaorij ' old ' ; agaon, ' he is old ' ; agaonc, likewise iatacan, ' my brother ' ; oniatacan, * we are brothers ' ; oniatacanehen, ' we were brothers.' That is rich ; this is not. A noun implying relation always implies with them one of the three persons of the possessive pronoun ; so that they can- not say simply ' father,' ' son,' ' master,' ' servant,' but they are constrained to say one of the three, ' my father,' ' thy father,' ' his father ' ; although I formerly translated in a prayer one of their nouns by that of father.* We are accordingly embar- rassed how to say properly in their language, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Would you think it proper to substitute in lieu thereof, In the name of our Father and of his Son and of their Holy Ghost. Indeed it seems that the Three Persons of The Most Holy Trinity would be sufficiently expressed in that way ; the third being in fact the Holy Spirit of the First and Second ; the Second the Son of the First ; and the First, Our Father, in the words of the Apostle, Ephesians iii. ; and according to the example of our Lord, both in our Lord's prayer and also in St. John xx. " I ascend to my Father and to yours." May we dare to do so until the Huron language becomes richer, or until the Hurons may acquire other languages ? We will do nothing without advice. Speaking of that name, father, another difficulty occurs in making those who have no father on earth say, Our Father ivho art in heaven. They consider it as an insult to speak to them of the dead whom they did love. A woman, whose mother was lately dead, almost gave up the wish of being into Huron, made by him before he was master of the language, and in which he had struck off the characteristic letter of the pronoun of the first person from the Huron word for my father ; which was bad Indian. This translation is printed in the Appendix to Champlain's Edition.
 * he was old ' ; agaonha, 'he is going to grow old,' &c. And
 * Father Brebeuf here alludes to his translation of a religious tract