THE   CANADIAN   JOURNAL.

                   NEW SERIES.

            No. XC —APEIL,  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 prose¬

cute 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