The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-22

tiers. Finding that there were eighty-six
syllable sounds in the language, he de-
vlsed for each one of them a peculiar
mark. From some of the marks he took
characters of our own alphabet, turning
them upside down. With these symbols
he set about writing letters, and by means
of them correspondence was soon main
tanned between Indians of his race in
Georgia and their relatives 500 miles
away
At present this alphabet-or. more
properly speaking, syllabary-is in gen
eral use among the Cherokees. In no
other language can the art of reading be
learned so quickly. Whereas a fairly
bright child learns to read wei in English
in two and half years a Cherokee
youngster is able to acquire huency in
reading books written in this syllabary
within two months and half. In 1927
the American Board of Foreign Missions
betrayed the cost of casting font OF
type of the characters. The literature
composed with them is now very extern
sive, numerous books and some of the
newspapers of the Cherokees being pub
lished in the syllabary.
Later, in 1910, an improved syllabary
was devised by the Rev. James Evans,
missionary among the Crees. 1t was
phonetic, and the characters were sim
pier, being composed of squares and parts
of squares and circles and parts of cir
cles. The Jealous clergyman cut his type
out of wood and made castings from the
original blocks with lead from tea chests,
which he begged from officers of the Hud
son Bay Company. He manufactured ink
out of SCOT and on hand press OF his own
construction printed many little tracts
and leaflets for the benefit of the indians.
With some notifications, his characters
have come into general use, not only
~ al. ~. 80
the northwest, which speak languages in
no wise AKIN TO that Of Crees, and scores
of books have been printed in them.
The que Tres periodical in eAis tence is
weekly now published by a french priest
at hamloops, British Columbia. 1t is
called the hamloops Wa-wa, which means
writing and is in the Chinook jargon.
This iargon is a sort of international
speech, composed of half a dozen diner
ent Indian tongues, mixed with fragments
OF English, rench and German. II is
the language of trade intercourse among
al the people of the sparsely settled
northwest as far as Alaska.
The mission field of the holy father
who publishes this periodical extends
over about 500 square miles. Much of his
time is spent in making long journeys be-
tween distant settlements, and during his
pauses for rest OBJ the way he amuses
himself with editorial work. The weekly
is written in three columns-the first
column in jargon, the second in short
hand characters, and the third in En-
glish. The matter is current news of the
mission, sermons, prayers, etc. 1t is
| multiplied by the Monograph and dis
tributed among the priests widely scat
| tered parlshioners. The paper on which
the printing is done is blue, green, pink,
| or yellow, according to the taste of the
people who give it to the good father.
The periodical is delivered free of charge,
Mr.. Pilling being, in all probability, the
| only paying subscriber.
The Jargon was started by the early
white explorers who visited the Pacific
coast. Lewis and Clark, the first ad-
venturers in that direction, were followed
by the people of the American Fur Com
pany, sent out by John Jacob Aston. The
passing of these commercial travellers
among the tribes of Indians resulted in
composite vocabulary, which is now used
by people who speak twenty different
languages, not one of them like unto an
other Yet they understand this common
business tongue, which, in a manner, cor
responds TO the Asiatic ''pidgin English"
Every Washington and Oregon man talks
Chinook.
In the Chinook jargon white men are
| divided into two kinds-''wo-hars" and
| 'goddams." The former is a term for
teamSterS ana tne ike, The deriVa ton
being obvious, while the latter is the
| designation for gentlemen, who, as every
! body knows, used to swear terribly in the
| old days. name for the white man in
! general is Boston, This is believed to
| be derived from an historical incident
namely: the capture by the Nootka In
| dians at Nootka sound of vessel called
the Boston, from the town of Boston,
Mass, in 1908. Every soul on board of
her was put to death save only two-a
sailmaker and sailor man named Jew
EFT. The former died, while the latter
was rescued by an American ship two
and a-half years later.
For fifteen years Mr. Pilling has been
engaged in the preparation of biblio-
graphs of the native languages of the
United States and CANADA, and so far ten
of these. each relating to one of the more
important families, haze been published
by the bureau of ethnology, the eleventh
being now ready for the press. He is now
beginning one of the Nahvatk language of
Mexico in which the earliest American
! printing was done and in which more ma
terial has been published than in any
other Of the North American tongues ex-
cept perhaps the Algonquin.