1902.] PRINCE — A MODERN DELAWARE TALE. 21 



Muskogee Agency of the Cherokee Nation, and the Minsi by about 

 three hundred Indians in Ontario, Canada, viz., one hundred at 

 Munceytown, one hundred at Moraviantown, the seat of a Moravian 

 mission, and the same number at Hagersville, on the Six Nations' 

 (Iroquois) Reserve. There are also a few Minsis at New Westfield, 

 near Ottawa, Kansas, most of whom are under the charge of the 

 Moravian Church.^ 



The following witchcraft story in the modern Minsi was sent to 

 me, with other MS. material, by Mr. Nelles Montour, Chief of the 

 Minsis at Hagersville, Ont., a well-educated Indian who writes his 

 own language with great clearness. Like all Indian scribes, how- 

 ever. Chief Montour writes syllabically, separating the syllables of 

 his texts and not the words, a process which makes a correct edition 

 of his MSS. extremely difficult. For example, in the following tale 

 in II. ^ Montour wrote keer/i keeth gta, as three distinct syllables. 

 This resolves itself under analysis mto kee?'hkee th'q'ta * by the fire.' 

 His translation also is in many instances so free as rather to 

 obscure the true meaning of the original. Thus, in IV. % he 

 renders chee quack leetahhawa dulwihkawawh ' I am a greater man 

 than he.' The correct translation is undoubtedly ' Do not think 

 about it ; I will overcome him.' Then, too, the not always uniform, 

 cumbrous English system of spelling followed by Montour, in com- 

 mon with those of his tribe who are members of the Church of Eng- 

 land, makes an accurate analysis of his texts doubly trying. The 

 English values of the consonants probably do not reproduce the 

 Indian sounds with great exactness, as may be seen from Montour's 

 constant use of the spelling quack 'what,' which clearly should be 

 written queq (see below on III. ''), as well as from his consistent 

 omission of the n prefix of the first person before g and before the 

 intercalary -d-, as in gutauch^ I. " ; diV/ioom, III. ;^, etc. The Mora- 

 vian Minsis still use the much more appropriate German system of 

 phonetics. 



The analysis of the following tale has been made chiefly by 

 means of the Old Delaware materials left by the German Moravian 

 missionaries of the eighteenth century, tabulated in a convenient 

 form by Dr. Brinton in his Lendpe-EngUsh JDictionary.'^ In cases 



1 These details were furnished by Chief Nelles Montour, of Hagersville, Ont., 

 and by Mr. Dew M. Wisdom, formerly Indian Agent at Muskogee, I. T. 



^ A Lenape- English Dictionary, by Daniel J. Brinton, A.M., M.D., and Rev. 

 Albert Seqaqkind Anthony, Philadelphia, i888. The material is drawn from a 

 MS. dictionary preserved in the Moravian archives at Bethlehem, Pa. 



