Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/86

 74 On t&e defcent ofte American Indians frm the Jews.

enough hath been faid to give a elear idea of the principles of the Indian language and diale&s, its genius and idiom, and ftrong fimilarity to, and near coincidence with the Hebrew which will be not eafily accounted for,, but by confidering the American Indians as defcended from the Jews.

��ARGUMENT VI.

They count TIME after the manner of the Hebrews..

They divide the year into fpring ftimmer autumn, or the fall of the leaf and winter : which the Cheerake Indians call Kogeb, Akooea, Oolekohjle^ Kora; and- the Chikkafah and Choktah nation, Qtwlpba, Tome palle, AJhtora- moona, Ajhtara. Kogeh is drawn from Anantoge^ the general appellation for the fun and moon ; becaufe, when the fun returns from the fonthern hemi- fphere, he covers the vegetable world with a green livery. Akooea alludes flrongly to the effential divine name, as we have feen in the former argu^ ment. With regard to Ookkohfte, " the fall of the leaf," as they call a buzzard, Score, or Sook ; and as Soolekohft-e fignifies troublefome, offenfive,. difagreeable, the word fignifies,. that " the fall of the year is as dif- agreeable a fight, as that of a buzzard." Kora, as with the Hebrews, figni^- fies the winter ; and is likevvife the name of a bone : and by joining Hah, an Hebrew note of admiration, to the end of it, as Kora-Hah, it becomes the proper name of a man, figaifying, " all bones," or very bony. Otocl- $ba y " the fpring feafon," is derived from Oolpba^ the name of a bud, or to moot out ; becaufe then the folar heat caufes vegetables to bud and> fpring. Tomeb fignifies " the folar light," and Patfe, " warm or hot ;'" AJhtora, " winter," and Mwna, " prefently," &c. ..

They number their years by any of thofe four periods, for they have no name for a year-, and they fubdivide thefe, and count the year by lunar months, like the Ifraelites, who counted by moons, as their name iufficiently teftifies ; for they called them DTTV 1, the plural of HIS- the moon.

The Indians have no diftincl: proper name for the fun and moon ; one w.ord, with a note of diftinaion, exprefles both for example -, the. Cheerake

call;

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