CANADIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND HISTORY: CONDUCTED BY THE EDITING COMMITTEE OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. NEW SERIES. VOL. XV. TORONTO: PRINTED FOR THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE BY COPP, CLARK & CO., COLBORNE STREET. Sm 878. CANADIAN INSTITUTE. EDITING COMMITTEE: R. RAMSAY WRIGHT, M.A., B.Sc., &c., Prof. of Natural History, Univ. Coll., Toronto. W. B. PEARMAN, M.A., Classical Tutor and Dean, Univ. Coll., Toronto. EDITOR: REV. HENRY SCADDING, D.D. THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. NEW SERIES. No. XC. APRIL, 1876. THE MOHAWK LANGUAGE. BY ORONHYATEKHA, OF THE MOHAWK NATION. When I was requested to prepare a paper concerning the language of my people, to be read before your learned body, I readily assented, not because I was not fully sensible of the difficulty of the task, or that I was not painfully aware of my own inability to do a subject of so much importance anything like full justice, but in the hope that I may be able to contribute something which may prove of some assistance to those who may hereafter institute inquiries in the same direction. It will not be expected, in a short paper like this, that more can be done than merely give a brief introduction to the subject in hand, trusting that future opportunities may be afforded to further prosecute our work. While it is the design to direct your attention mainly to the language, it may not be amiss to give, at the outset, a general outline of the history of the Mohawks. They are the head tribe of the Confederacy of the Six Nations, and, like the other Indian tribes of this continent, their origin is involved in mystery. The only source which has not been exhausted, from which we can derive any information, at present within our reach, is the Indian traditions. They are, however, so mythical in their character, as touching the origin of the Indian, that but little, if any, reliance can be placed in them. I may say, however, that they all teach that the |