Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/108

84 lating languages readily understand the difficulties of this labor, which at times becomes almost an impossible task. The word **Idaho" consists of three component parts, each of which must be analyzed to correctly understand its derivation and the idea thereby conveyed. The first is "Ee," which in English conveys the idea of "coming down." This syllable is the basis of such Shoshoni words as mean "raining," "snowing," etc., which words when properly translated would be, "water coming down," "snow coming down," etc. The second syllable is "Dah," which is the Shoshoni stem or root for both "sun" and "mountain," the one being as eternal and everlasting to the Indian mind as is the other. The third syllable, "How," denotes the exclamation and stands for just the same thing in Indian as the exclamation mark (!) does in the English language. The Shoshoni word is "Ee-dah-how," and the Indian thought thus conveyed when literally translated into English means, "Behold! the sun coming down the mountain."

The mere word does not indicate much, for it is composed of simple syllables, the significance of which requires pages of written English to correctly convey the idea which this exclamation suggests to the aboriginal mind. Every one who has lived in a mountainous country has observed at sunrise the rim of sunlight coming down the mountainside, as the sun was rising in the opposite direction. This is the Shoshoni "Ee-dah-how." It can only occur in and among the mountains which is represented by the English thought, "the lofty mountains upon which the morning breaks." Also it can occur only at those times when the atmosphere is still, clear and bright, elements producing that invigorating and exhilarating feeling which only high mountainous countries possess.

In the imagination this sunlight on the mountainside can be interpreted to mean "Sunshine Mountain," or "Shining Mountain," and the rim of sunlight can also represent the "Diadem on the Mountain," while a peculiar sunlit peak could be imagined a "Sun-Crowned Peak," or a brilliant display of sunlight upon a snow-capped mountain where the rays of sunshine are