The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-28
SPEECH OF THE SIX NATIONS,


 To be Studied Further by Philologist
 of the Bureau of American Ethnolo-
 gy.
 Philologist J. N. E. Hewitt of the bu- reau of American ethnology will leave here in a few days for novel expedi- tion of study, to be made in the Grand river reserve. seventy miles west of Buffalo, on the Canadian side. In this reserve are combined the odd tribes known as the Six Nations-the confed- eration of Indians composed of the Oneidas, Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayu- gas, Senecas and Tuscaroras.
 MT Hewitt. by applying novel sys- tenn, will make dictionaries and gram mars of these Indian languages, and by aid of these data will make an interest ing English translation of the Bible of the Six Nations, recording their strange pagan beliefs concerning the creation and early history of the world. AL though more civilized than most Indi- ans, those of the Six Nations have nev- CT before been studied ethnologically. MT Hewitt will live Indian" with the big chiefs, and will take elaborate notes upon all that they tell him. He can speak eight Indian languages, and has knowledge of practically every lan- guage of the old world. He is prepar- ing to carry with him a phonograph, which will preserve for him the words and sentences which he will study He will ask the talkative Indians to speak very distinctly into this machine, and will afterward grind out each word slowly and carefully, noting each sylla- ble, accent, and infection Reliable interpreters will supply the literal translatons to every sentence. Since no American tribe, except the Mayas, has ever had a written language, the philologist must rely entirely upon his ears for correct arrangenent of sound.
 For recording each sound in it's orig inal tone of utterance he will use 0 special alphabet of forty-eight charac- ters, besides many additional signs for modified tones. For rapidity and ac- curacy of work he has made a, type writer which writes Indian as clearly as the ordinary typewriter writes Eng fish. In the places of the keys oper- ating the English types, are arranged others operating the Indian sound let ters. With this he win write inter- views with Indians, which converse tions when read will mean the same to his ears as the original words when spoken. MT. Hewitt says that in cer- tain lexical processes the languages of these people resemble provincial Latin. in general way.
 When beginning with a strange Ian guage he will commence the prepara- ton of the dictionary ard grammar by inscribing as many simple sentences as possible, having each word repeated over and over Lists of as many words as he can think of will be collected, With the English equivelants following They will afterward be arranged alpha betically and printed X Tuscaroran dictionary which the phiologists lately prepared contains about 13,000 words The different case endings and other modified forms for the grammars will be collected by requiring the persons interviewed to use the same word in many different cases, moods lenses, etc.
 Of all the scattered Six Nations about sixty per cent. are still pagans, who be- iieve the ancient myths of their ances- tors as devoutly as the most orthodox Christian believes the story of the Bi- ble. The Bible of the Six Nations will combine the beliefs of all the. tribes. These creeds correspond. the six tribes having descended from the same stock. From previous visit among several of the tribes he brought back the pagan text of what may be called their Old Testament. This will be print ed as the first part of their Bible. The New Testament will comprise the new pagan creed, an odd mixture of my thology and Christianity. The change in the creed was brought about early in this century by a Seneca boy, the nephew of Chief Handsome Lake. The youth was educated in Spain, and re- turning to his uncle's wigwam for @ brief vacation, proceeded to convert the old chief to the more creditable story of the Christian Bible. Before having made his points sufficiently clear the young man died. Handsome Lake made use of the smattering of Chris tianity which he had acquired and preached 1t among the people of the Six Nations The result was an odd re- ligion, taken bodily from the Chris the myths of the original pagan creed.