Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1886-07-29

10 ten thousand lines, and II took about
q week TO hear them. Zone boy In my
year" he says, repeated the enormous
quantity Of fourteen thousand lines OF
Homer, Horace and Virgil. / heard
him say Il"
Ease In learning foreign languages
Is sometimes regarded ss a mere mat
ter Of memory; while. however, this is
not exactly true, Il must be allowed, OF
course. that skilled lnguists are en-
dowed with powers OF memory beyond
the average. Here also we find that
that will stand comparison with
our great modern linguists. Our
modern facilities for travel and study
place us at an immense advantage.
Crassus, when prmtor in Asia, was so
familiar with the dialects Of Greek,
that he was able TO try cases and pro-
nounce Judgment in any dialect that
might chance to be spoken in his pres
cnce. "Mithridates, king Of twenty
two nations, administered their laws
In as many languages and could
haranguc each division OF his motley
array Of soldiers in It's own language
or dialect.
But what are such linguists rs these
by the side Of the best examples of re-
cent timesp Keeping within the limits
Of the last hundred years, we have eX-
amples that have never been surpassed
or even approached in former times.
Sir William Jones knew thirteen Ian
guages well, and could read with COM
paratlvo ease in thirty others. John
Ieyden. very inferior man TO his
great contemporary, had a good ac-
quaintance with fifteen OF the leading
European and Asiatic languages.
Within the last few years we have lost
two men who could have travelled from
the hills of Connemara or the mount
aims of Wales to the Ural mountains,
or from Lisbon or Algiers to Ispahan or
Delhi, and hardly met with a language
in which they could not converse or
write with ease. Tho reader will most
likely have anticipated the names OF
two Of the most remarkable linguists
this country has produced-Georgo
Borrow and Edward Henry Palmer.
When Borrow was at St. Petersburg,
he published a little book called Tar
gum, in which he gave translations in
prose and poetry from thirty different
languages. Besides speaking the
native tongue OF every European nation.
Palmer was so perfect master Of Ara
bic, Persian, Hindustani, Turkish and
the language Of the gypsies, that even
natives were sometimes deceived rs to
his nationality. Mr. Leland says that
one day in Paris Palmer "entered into
conversation with Zouave or Turco,
a native Arab. After while the man
said: why do you wear these clothes?'
Why, low should dress? exclaimed
Palmer. Dress like what you arer
was the indignant reply-'like a Mus
limr "
Viscount Strangford may be placed
in the same category with these; and
the ''learned blacksmith" Elihu Bur
ritt, whose friends claim for him that
he knew all the languages of Europe
and most of those of Asia. must not be
left out of sight But even these do
not touch the highest limit OF linguistic
skill and power of memory The most
scientific linguist We have to name,
and one of the most remarkable for the
extent of his acquisition, is Won der
Gabelentz, who seems to have been
equally at home with the Suahilis, the
Samoyeds, the Hazards, the Aimaks,
the Dyaks, the Dakotas and the Kiriris;
who could translate from Chinese into
Manchu, compile a grammar or correct
the speech of the inhabitants Of the Fiji
Islands, New Hebridcs. loyalty Islands
or New Caledonia. When we come to
Cardinal Mezzofanti and Sir John Bow
ring we find the "highest record as
regards the mere number and variety OF
tongues that men have been known to
acquire. No onc can speak with alb
solute certainty as to the number of
languages Mezzofanti could converse
Ia with ease. Mrs. Somerville saws that
he professed only fifty-two.
This brief review Of the subject nec-
essarily leaves out OF account vast
number Of the most extraordinary and
interesting examples. Artists like
Horace Vernet; mathematicians and
calculators like DIR. Wallis and Leon
ard Euler, or G. r. Bidder and young
Colburn; musicians like Mozart; news
paper reporters like the unequalled
Memory Woodfall;" literary men like
Lord Macaulay aud T. II. Buckle;
chess-playcrs like Paul Morphy and j.
H. Biackbourne, have accomplished
feats of memory as marvellous as any
Of those which have been mentioned. -
Il