Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/83

 Obfervations on their language. 7 I

perly. They ufe many plain religious emblems of the divine names, Yo- HEWAH, YAH, and ALE, and thefe are the roots of a prodigious number of words, through their various dialects. It fe furprizing they were unnoticed, and that no ufe was made of them, by the early voluminous Spanifh writers, or by our own, for the information of the learned world, notwith- ftanding the bright lights they had to direct them in that ra, when the de corations of their holy temples and priefts, their religious ceremonies, and facred hymns of praife to the Deity, of which hereafter, fo nearly corref- ponded with the Ifraelhim, and might have been readily difcovered by any who eyed them with attention. In our time, by reafon of their long inter- courfe with foreigners, we have necefFarily but a few dark traces to guide our inquiries, in the inveftigation of what muft have been formerly, fliining. truths.

I muft beg to be indulged with a few more remarks on their verbs, -If we prefix As to A-a> " to move," it becomes A-fd-a^ " to offend.'* The mo- nofyllables Ifh and Cbe> varioufly denote the fecond perfon fingular ; but when the former is by cuftom prefixed to a verb, the latter then expreffes either the accufative or ablative cafe fingular of the pronoun relative ; as IJb-a-fd-ab y " you are offended, or moved to fay Ah ;" I/h-a-fa-a-re, " you were dif- pleafed :" but Cbe-a-fd-ab fignifies " I am difpleafed with you ;" and Cke-a- fd-a-re " I was offended by you-," Che-a-fd-a-cbee-le is " I occafion,. or have occafioned you to be difpleafed," literally, " I produce, or have produced offence to you ," and Cbe-a-fd-a-cbee-la Aisoa, " I mail not caufe you to be difpleafed." In like manner, they fay A-dn-ha^ which fignifies " I defpife,'* or literally, " I move ba ;" for the mid letter is inferred for diftincYion-fake,, according to their idiom. So A-chin-ba-chu, " I fhali contemn you ,'* A-cbm-ha-cbee-la A-<wa, " I mail not caufe you to become defpicable." Chee-le fignifies literally, lt to bring forth young." So that the former me thod of expreffion is very fignificant ; and yet it fliews a fterility of lan guage, as that fingle word is applicable to every fpecies of female animals,, fowls not excepted : Thus, Phoo-Jhe Cbee-le^ " the birds lay." Oe-Jbe figni fies " a young animal," of any kind and likewife an egg. When men tioned alone, by way of excellence, it is the common name of an infant; but when the name of the fpecies of animals is prefixed to it, it defcribes the young creature. An-^ujh-koojh oo-Jhe, is what the tender mother fays to- her well-pleafed infant. The two words import the fame thing. The for mer refembles the Hebrew, and the latter is- likewife a fubflantive ; they j fay

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