Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-08-23
Che famiIp Girfle.
ELLIOT,s INDIAN BIBLE.

ELLIOT'S INDIAN BIBLE.
A copy Of this literary curiosity lies before
me. 1t is in quarto form, rough and rusty with
old age, and halowed by old associations.
The language in which it is written is dead !;
entirely dead no man living can either read it,
or speak it.
This Bible was printed in 1885. The quality
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 penknife
for the occasion. 1t is bound in sheep with
heavy " ribs " upon the back.
Tho " illuminations at the beginning are
extremely rude; and the lines are bent and
broken
The difference between this Bible and the fine
edition last issued by the American Bible Socie-
ty, ina typographical point of view, appears
almost as great as that between the rude "wig-
vans 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 Pslams of David
rendered with Indian Uerse
The title at the beginning of the Bible is
"Mamusse wunneetu panatamwee
UP BIBLuN GoD
Naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk
wuskee Testament. Ne quoshknnumuk nashpe
Wuttinneaumoh Christ hoh asoowesit, JOHN Ell
LIoT. Nahobtoeu ontchetoe Printenoomuk.- -
Cambridge. Printeuoop nashpo Samuel Green.
1885,"
The Old Testament contains $50 pages, and ia
said to have all been written with a single pen
1t has very few marginal references and the IT,
ties of the chapters are given in English.
The language, which ia the Nipmuck, seems to
abound in long, harsh and cultural words IN
and occur as frequently as in the Latin
The longest word which can find in this BIZ
BILE is in Mark l 40" Witteppesittukqssunnn-
oowehtunkquoh," " and signifies " Kueeling down
to Him."
Whenever the object whose name was to be
translated was unknown to the Indians, Elliot
uses the English word either alone, or with
the Indian case or tense endings appended, &c
that such words as the following are constantly
occurring chaziotash, cherubimloh, apos
tlesog, silver, gold, temple ',wine,' car
pentcrsoh, masonsoh' and the like.
In translating Judges :2S--" The mother O
Sisera looked out of the window and cried thro
the lattice, he asked the Indians for the wor
lattice" and found when his translation wa
completed that he had written, and " cried thre
the eef-pot," that being the only object whic
the natives knew as corresponding with tho Oh
ject Mr.. Elliot described to them.
The Pslams are translated into that form
verse which is termed in our hymn books }''con
mon metre /" and nothing can be more clum
and uncouth than the structure of the rhyme
Sternhold and Hopkins even may be read vii
exquisite pleasure after perusing few stanz
like the following, which are taken from ii
10Th Psalm ''The heavens declare the glory
God, &c.
J. "Kesuk Observation-Disclosures
God wussohsumoonk
Mamahchekesuk wunnahtuhkon
Nutanak ausnonk
2. Hohsekoeu kesukodtash
Kuttoo waantamonk
Kah hohsekoe nukonash
Keketookon wahteauouk /"
The first edition of this Bible was publish
in 1868. The type was set by an Indian, al
it was three years in going through the pre-,
1t is the first edition of the Bible ever publish
in America. 1t contains nearly all that is !.
of the literature of the aborigines of our Stat
and although the end and the aim of the gre
and good translator, in achieving his hercule
task, has not been attained, the work will e
be held sacred, as being the pioneer, as it we
of God s sacred volume In America as be
almost the only abiding record of peopl,
. whose ample stock but one solitary living rel
sentative now remains and of whom it
soon in Logan's words be said ~" There r
not q drop of my [theirl blood in the veins
any living creature, VIZ ton TrGue