The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-09-06
[From the Boston Trayeler.l
ELLIOTS INDIAN BIBLE.

ELLI0Ts INDIAN BIBLE.
A copy of this literary curiosity lies before
me. 1t is quarto form, rough and rusty with
old age, and hallowed by old associations.
The language in which it is written is dead;
entirely dead; no man living can either read it
or speak it. 50
This Bible was printed in 1885. The quail
ty Of the paper is poor enough; and the type is
uneven and unsightly; that of the title page
seems in part to have been cut with penknite
for the occasion. 1t is bound in sheep, with
heavy ''ribs'' upon the back.
The EXAMINATIONS at the beginning are ex-
tremely rude, and the Zines are bent and bro
ken.
The difference between this Bible and the
fine edition last issued by the American Bible
Society, in a typographical point Of view, ap-
pears almost as great as that between the rude
''wigwams" which its readers inhabited and
those elegant and commodious dwellings which
now occupy the site of them.
This copy before me contains the old and
new Testaments, together with the Psalms of
David rendered with Indian Uerse
The title at the beginning of the Bible is:
''Mamusse wunneetu panatamwe
UP BIBLE GOD
Naneeswe Nukone Testament kah wonk
wuskee Testament. Ne quoshkinnumuk
nashpe Wuttinneaumoh Christ noh as owesit,
j Ohm ELLIOT Nahobteeu outchetoe Printe-
noomuk. Printenoop nashpe Samuel Green,
1885," s...ss.
The Old Testament contains $50 pages, and
is said to have been all written with single
pen! 1t has very few marginal references and
the titles of the chapters are given in English.
The language, which is the Nipmuck, seems
to abound in long, harsh and cultural words;
m and n, occur as frequently as in the Latin.
The largest word which | can find in this
Bible is in Mark, lao; 'Wuttepperittukquess
unnoowehtunkquoh," and signifies "kneeling
down to him.
Whenever the object whose name was to be
translated was unknown to the Indians Elliot
tries the English word either alone, or with
the Indian case or tense endings appended, so
that such words as the following are constantly
occurring: 'chaziotash, !" ''cherubimloh,' "apost
lesog," 'gold,' temple" !" ''wine," carpenter
sob, p ''masonob," and thelike. PEG
In translating Judges 5: 28-"The mother
of Sisera looked out at a window and cried
Haroaqh the Lattice."-he asked the Indians for
the word 'lattice,'' and found when his transla-
ton was completed, that he had written, and
sc,ied through the eel-p0t,' that being the only
object which the natives knew as correspond
with the object Mr.. Elliot described to them.
The Psalms are translated into that form of
verse, which is termed in our hymn books
common metre;' and nothing can be more
clumsy and uncouth than the structure of the
rhymes Sternhold and Hopkins even may be
read with exquisite pleasure after perusing
few stanzas like the following, which are from
the 18th Psalm; "the heavens declare the glory
of God" &c:
l. "Kesuk Northumberland
God Wussohsumoonk
! Mamachekesuc wunnatuhkon
WutanakauSnonk.
g. "Hohsekoeukesuckotabh
Kuttoo Waantamonk
Kah hoshkoe nukooash
| Keketookon wahteauonkn n'
The first edition of this Bible was published
in 1863 The type was set by an Indian, and
it was three years in going through the press.
1t is the first edition of the Bible ever publish
ed in America 1t contains nearly all that is
left of the literature of the aborigines of our
State; and although the end and aim of the
great and good translator in achieving his her
culean task has not been attained, the work will
ever be held sacred as being the pioneer, as it
;. were, of Gods sacred volume In America as
being almost the only abiding record OF peo-
pie of whose ample stock but one solitary liv-
| ing representative now remains; and of whom
it will soon be said, in Logan's words, There
runs not drop of my (their) in the veins of
any human creature"
NEIGHBoRs- They're the oncomfortablest
set o. neighbors that ever yer knoweds" said
Mrs Snigglefritz.
"One never gifts minnit's peace of 'em.-
First there's our Tom a heavin' stones and
Ibreakin in their winders. Then Joe; he's al
lays a-callin' on 'eIn names, an settin' Grip at
their heels when they come home from meet
lin' And the critters out their in the pastur',
they're everlastin' over the bars into their ta-
Iter-patch.
"What with one think and another, Pm
lgettin' pesky tired on EN- and shan't feel a
lsixpence-'orth o. sorrer, if some fne day nnds
Fem a toddlin back where they KEN rom.
/ Pr1rcKy EpITREss.-Mrs. Prewett, who,
since the death other husband, has edited the
IYazoo Whir. having received an offensive note,
isavs s.Tf the biped who sent US that anony-
4 T,onc letter from Jackson, signed 'Cherubusco,'
Iii cor,o IN Yazoo city, and call at the Wing
office, two noble little boys one elgnt and the
lother six years old, shall tie leather medal
laround his neck, as due bill for logging they
lowe him payable some ten years hence, with
lcompound interest"
/ NJ Many Of the counties whose wrath pre-
vented them from appointing liquor agencies,
Ihaye determined to hold out no longer
4 0AYMr. C. f. Adams has completed his long
;lexpected Life of John Adams" and 1T VIII DC
published in few months