A Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America: Delivered by Samuel Farmar Jarvis 1820
"Much stress has been laid upon the supposed use of the Hebrew words Jehovah and Halliluiah among the Indians. With regard to the invocation of God, by the name of Jehovah, the fact, in the first place, is not certain. Some travellers assert that the Indians, when assembled in council, and on other solemn occasions, express their approbation by ejaculating Ho, ho, ho, with a very guttural emission. In the minutes of a treaty, held at Lancaster, I think in 1742, on which occasion Conrad Weiser was interpreter, it is said that the chiefs expressed their approbation in the usual manner, by saying, "Yo-wah." p. 90
Light and Truth: Collected from the Bible and Ancient and Modern History by Robert Benjamin Lewis 1844
"In their sacred dances, these authors assure us the Indians sing "Halleluyah Yohewah;"—praise to Jah Jehovah. When they return victorious from their wars, they sing, Yo-he-wah; having been by tradition taught to ascribe the praise to God. The same authors assure us, the Indians make great use of the initials of the mysterious name of God, like the tetragrammation of the ancient Hebrews; or the four radical letters which form the name of Jehovah; as the Indians pronounce thus, Y-O-He-wah." p. 261
View of the Hebrews: Exhibiting the Destruction of Jerusalem by Ethan Smith 1823
"These Indians have many wild pagan notions of this one God. But they have brought down by tradition, it seems, the above essentially correct view of him, in opposition to the polytheistical world. Their name of God is remarkable — Wahconda. It has been shown in the body of this work, that various of the Indians call God Yohewah, Ale, Yah, and Wah, doubtless from the Hebrew names Jehovah, Ale, and Jah, And it has been shown that these syllables which compose the name of God, are compounded in many Indian words, or form the roots from which they are formed. Here we find the fact; while the author from whom the account is taken, it is presumed, had no perception of any such thing. Wah-conda; the last syllable of the Indian Yohewah, compounded with conda. -Or Jah, Wah, their monosyllable name of God thus compounded. Here is evidence among those children of the desert, both as to the nature and the name of their one God, corresponding with what has been exhibited of other tribes; and very unaccountable, if they are not of the tribes of Israel."
Cumorah Revisited: Or, "The Book of Mormon" and the Claims of the Mormons by Charles Augustus Shook 1910
"Latter-day Saints tell us further that the Indians were in the habit of using the sacred ejaculation, 'Hallelujah,' and Jenkins says: 'In the Choctaw nation they often sing 'Halleluyah,' intermixed with their lamentations.' — The Ten Tribes, p. 132. Elsewhere (p. 144) he informs us that both the Choctaw and Cherokee tribes use the word. The Creeks had a sacred chant, hi-yo-yu or hay-ay-al-gi. The Cherokees employed the sacred, but meaningless, chant, ha-wi-ye-e-hi, in their "Groundhog Dance;" he-e! hay-u-ya han-iwa, etc., was employed by their bear-hunters to attract the bear; while ha-wi-ye-hy-u-we was a part of one of their baby songs. Hayuya falling on the ears of an Englishman might be mistaken for "hallelujah." Lastly, the words for "Jehovah" (Yohewah in the Cherokee, Che-ho-wa in the Choctaw, and Chihufa in the Creek) are not original words at all, and the same may be said for Shiloh, Canaan and other Old Testament names, but are simply the efforts of these tribes to pronounce our Scriptural terms."
No comments:
Post a Comment