The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-08-08
SOME INDIAN TONGUES
The Unique Library Possessed by an Eth
nologist in Washington.
TWashinrton Evening star.

Washington Evening star
Perhaps the most remarkable small
library in this country is the property or
James C. Pilling, the well-known ethnol-
ogist of Washington. It is the largest ex-
isting collection OF books in Indian Ian
guages, and of these languages there
are no less than ffty-five in North
America, north of Mexico. All of them
are distinct from one another a Chinese
and English.
More than one half of the 500 dialects
into which the ffty-fve languages re-
ferred to are divided are pres 'rved IN
books. It is believed that the first book
printed on this continent was in an In
dian language-.the "Nahuatp' Unpublished
at the City Of Mexico in 1889. The first
Bible printed in America was in An Indian
tongue-the celebrated Eliot Bible. This
is one of tbs most costly OF all rare books.
About forty copies of it were specially
prepared, with dedication to Charles Ill.
One of these, in good condition, is now
worth about $4,000.
The first printing done west of the Rocky
Mountains was in the Nez Perce Ian
guage. It was primer for Indian chill
dren, turned out from the mission prc1s
at Clearwater, Idaho, in 1889. The press
that did the work had been brought by
the missionaries all the way from the
Hawaiian Islands
The first book printed in Dakota was a
dictionary of the Sioux Ian guage, produce
in 1866 at Fort Laramie. 1t was prepared
by two officers of the United Stats army,
Lieuts. Hyde and Starring, to pass away
the weary hours during a long and cold
winter at thatlonely outpost OF civilization.
They were aided in the work by an in
terpreter ard by the Indians who loafed
about the fo:t. The type was set up by
the soldiers, and fifty copies were struck
off on a crude hand press. Only two
copies are now known, one OF them be-
longing to Gen Starring OF New York, a
brother of of the author, and the other
to Mr. Pilling.
The only existing alphabet that IS the
product of one mans mind and which a
literature has been printed. was the lnven-
ton of half-breed Cherokee Indian. His
name was Sc quo-yah, and he had no
education whatever; but it occurred TO
him that he could express all the syl1ables
in the Che. okee tongue by characters.
Finding that there were elghty-slx syl-
Liable sounds in the language. he devised
for each one of them peculiar mark.
For some of the marks he took characters
of our alphabet, turning them upside
dowl. With these symbols he set about
writin : letters, and by means OF them a
correspondence was soon maintained be.
tween Indians of his race in Georgia and
relatives 500 miles away.
At present this alphabet-or, more pro.
perly speaking. syllabary-is in general
use among the Cheroko IS. In no other
language can the art Of reading be lear lned
so quickly. Whereas fairly bright
child learns to read we'll in English IN two
and half years. Cherokee youngster is
able to acquire tluency in reading books
written in this syllabary within two
months and half In 1927 tie American
board Off Foreie n Missions betrayed the cost
OF casting font of type OF the characters
The literature composed with them is now
very extensive, numerous books and some
of the newspapers of the Cherokees being
published in the syllabary.