The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-22
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
Everybody has heard OF the Eliot Bible.
Only fourteen complete copies or the frst
and second editions are known TO be IN
existence. and when one of these copies
gets into the market there is great COM
petition and the precious volume costs the
man who secures IL small fortune
II will be remembered that John Eliot,
learned Englishman. who came to Mas
sachusetts in 1881. spent the remainder
or his life, fifty-nine years, In pastoral ana
missionary work in MASSACHUSETTS he Was
the pioneer student of aboriginal languages
in New England and he was not merely
translator of native tongues, put also an
original and expert investigator or their
structure. His enduring fame rests chiefy
on the records OF the aboriginal languages
included in his translation of the Bible and
his grammar.
labors have now been arranged in the form
of dictionary. The work was done by the
most competent man in this country 1or
that service. The late Or. James ii. Trum-
bull. an expert philologist. who was once
lecturer on the native languages of North
America at Yale University, devoted the
closing years of his life to the most scien-
tific study of Eliot's Indian Bible that has
been made since the publication or thal
wonderful book.
His manuscript has just been published
as Bulletin Twenty-Five by the Bureau OF
American Am. g Ethnology' Washington, LIS :
makes a volume of S75 pages. The book is
divided into two parts, the first giving
the Natick words with the English det1nl-
tlons and the second giving the hngns u
words with Natick definitions. In other
words. the volume contains two diction-
aries, one Natick-English and the other
English-Natick.
Trumbulls work will be regarded as a
most valuable contribution TO the study
of the aboriginal languages of this country.
Nearly forty books have been printed as
part of Eliots movement for the transla-
of hn rfNfn nO m a TCf
of the Indians. In the use of all these books
DR.. Trumbulrs dictionary will be of the
very first value.
There is another reason why this die
tionary will have particular prominence
While it Is devoted to the Natick language
it is practically a dictionary Of all the
Algonquin languages of Massachusetts, fol
the tribes of that part of the country
though each had its dialectic variations.
The Massachusetts Indian language also
is nearly related to many other aboriginal
tongues. The Rev. j. A. Gilfillan, who has
been so prominent in the work of educa-
ton among the Indians Of the northern
Mississippi valley, found, for example, that
the Chippewas of northern Minnesota were
greatly interested in the Bible of Eliot
and readily caught the analogies of the
language with their own.
DIR. Edward Everett Hale, who has writ.
ten an introduction for the dictionary
says that in the spring of 1899 he placed
before a Chippewa boy in the Hampton
school thirty words of the Massachusetts
Indian language. The boy recognized al
once fifteen of them, giving to them theil
full meaning and with a little study he
made cut almost all of the remainder.
The definitions in the dictionary are very
complete and are illustrated by numerou:
citations from Eliot's Bible. Experts in
| the Algonquin languages now agree thai
Eliot a great philologist His study
of the remarkable grammatic construction
of these languages was scientific and cor
rect
1t was long before European linguist.
| believed that his statements regarding In,
grammar of the Algonquin tribes coul,
| be true. 1t seemed to them that the Ian
guages were too perfect in their construc
| ton to have developed among barbarou
| tribes. The study of the past century
| however. has proved that Eliot correctl,
| described the elaborate system Of the Al
gonquin grammar.
| This great language and its variou
| dialects is now practically dead. The de
scendants of the Massachusetts Indian
/ now retain no word of the language OF thei
| race. In Maine, however. and southwest
| ern Canada the Passamaquoddy and Mic
| mac Indians still use their dialects of tn
| Algonquin stock.
| the new dictionary will be a most val
| liable souvenir of the great native Ian
| guage: and it will fittingly honor the mem
( DRY of Eliot, the pioneer, and of Trumbul
| the later student, whose linguistic studio
of our aboriginees were both sympatheti
| an dsystematic.