As Reginald had not seen Wingenund, he asked his companion how it
happened that the youth did not accompany them. “He is gone,” replied
War–Eagle, “to bring turkeys to the camp.”
“Does he shoot them?” inquired Reginald.
“No, he takes them—my white brother shall see; it is not far from the
Elk Path.”
When they reached the wooded bottom, War–Eagle struck into a small
track which seemed to have been made by a streamlet in spring, and
having followed it for about a mile, they came to a more open woodland
scene, where the Indian pointed, as they passed along, to scattered
feathers, and foot–tracks of turkeys in abundance. They had not
proceeded far, when he uttered a low exclamation of surprise as he
discovered Wingenund stretched at the foot of a tree, with his eyes
busily fixed upon something which he held in his hand, and which so
riveted his attention that he was not aware of their approach. Beside
him lay two old and two young turkeys, which he had caught and killed:
the friends had not looked at him many seconds, before he raised his
eyes and perceived them: starting to his feet, he made an ineffectual
attempt to conceal that which he had been holding in his hand, which
was, in fact, a sheet of coarse white paper. Reginald drew near and
said to him, “Come, Wingenund, you must show Netis what you hold in
your hand: I am sure it is no harm; and if it is a secret, I will keep
it.”
Wingenund, in some confusion, handed the scroll to Reginald, who saw at
the first glance that it was a fragment of an elementary vocabulary of
Delaware and English words, written in a free bold character: he ran
his eye over the paper, which contained chiefly phrases of the most
simple kind, such as, “_N’menne_, I drink,” “_N’ani pa wi_, I stand,”
“_Tokelân_, it rains,” “_Loo_, true,” “_Yuni_, this,” “_Na–ni_, that,”
&c. &c., and a smile came over his features when his eye met his own
name, “Netis,” with its translation, “dear friend.” Below this he
read, “N’quti,” “Nisha,” “Nacha,” “Newo,” and a succession of single
words, which he rightly conjectured to be numerals, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.,
and at the bottom of the page was a long sentence in the Lenapé tongue,
which began as follows:—“_Ki wetochemelenk talli epian awassagame_,
&c.”—“What is this last sentence, Wingenund?” inquired Reginald.
“It is the prayer,” replied the youth, “that the Good Spirit taught the
white men to say, when he came to live among them.”
“And who wrote all these words for you?”
“Prairie–bird wrote them, and every day she teaches me to understand
the marks on the paper.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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