50 On the defcent of the American Indians from the Jews.
The Cheerake ufe another expreffion, which bears a ftrong analogy to the former method of adjuration , though it is not fo facred in their opinion, becaufe of one letter prefixed, and another fubjoined. The judge, in fmall controverfies, afks the witnefs, fo e u (Jko ?) To which he anfwers, fo e u, vrfoeu bab 9 " It is very true," or " a mod certain truth." Such an ad dition of any letter, or letters, to the vowels of the fuppofed divine, four- lettered name, feems to proceed from a ftrift religious cuftom of propor tioning them to the circumftances of perfons and things, left, otherwife, they mould blafpheme, or prophane the emblems of the great divine name. And the vowel U feems to allude to "rriN, i. e. ONE a name of God, figuratively for, in their dialect, when it is a period, it makes a fuperla- tive, according to their ufage in applying the reft of the divine appella tives, fymbols, or names.
They efteem fo e u hah fo ftrong an afient to any thing fpoken, that\ Cheefto Kaiehre, " the old rabbet," (the name of the interpreter) who for merly accompanied feven of their head warriors to London, aflured me, they held there a very hot debate, in their fubterranean lodgings, in the dead hours of the night of September the 7th, 1730, whether they mould not kill him, and one of the war-chieftains, becaufe, by his mouth, the other anfwered fo e u hah to his Majefty's fpeech, wherein he claimed, not only their land, but all the other unconqnered countries of the neighbouring nations, as his right and property. When they returned home, they were tried again, by the national fanhedrim, for having betrayed the public faith, and fold their country, for acknowledged value, by firm compact, as repre- fentatives of their country ; they having received a certain quantity of goods, and a decoying belt of white wampum : but, upon ferious deliberation, they were honourably acquitted, becaufe it was judged, the interpreter was bound, by the like oath, to explain their fpeeches ; and that furprife, inad vertence, felf-love, and the unufual glittering (how of the courtiers, cxtoned the facred aflent, fo e u hah, out of the other's mouth, which fpoiled the force of it , being much afraid, left they fhould fay fomething amifs, on account of the different idiom of the EngHm, and Indian American dia lects *. As there is no alternative between a failhood, and a lie, they
ufually
- The ftrong fentiments, natural wit, and intenfe love of liberty, which the Indians (hew
themfelves pott'eHed of, in a high degree, Ihould direft our colonifts to purfue a different me thod
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