The rude hieroglyphics or pictoriographs of the Indians
were essentially different from all written language. These were
rude representations of events, the symbols being chiefly the
totemic devices of the tribes. A few general signs for war, death,
travel, or other common incidents, and strokes for numerals,
represented days or events as they were perpendicular or
horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little more than helps to
memory, for while they undoubtedly tied up the knots for years,
like the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan, still the meagre
record could only be read by the initiated, for the Indians only
intrusted their history and religion to their best and ablest men.
The general theory with many Indians was, that the written speech
of the white man was one of the mysterious gifts of the Great
Spirit. Se-quo-yah boldly avowed it to be a mere ingenious
contrivance that the red man could master, if he would try.
Repeated discussion on this point at length fully turned his
thoughts in this new channel. He seems to have disdained the
acquirement of the English language. Perhaps he suspected first
what he was bound to know before he completed his task, that the
Cherokee language has certain necessities and peculiarities of its
own. It is almost impossible to write Indian words and names
correctly in English. The English alphabet has not capacity for
its expression.
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