ANTHROP. Pap. 

 No. 75] 



CHRONICLES OF WOLFTOWN — KILPATRICK 



51 



agwada'i*nv:sdi 

 to move, I 



a : gh (a) dhahyo : se : Iv : gi ["] 



she asked me for it 



u : dv : hnv : gi 



she did state 



a?se : sdi 

 to count, one 



agwvd6:tsv 



nu:hl(i)sdhanv 

 it became 



left me, it 

 no : gwo 

 now 



$5.37 



$5.37 



ge:di 

 Qerdi 



agwatse : li : ga 



mine 



a : di : ha 



he says 



i:ga:? 

 the amount 



ayv 

 I 

 tsinergi 



I just said 



e:liidi:tsvp] 

 below, toward 



$1.55 



$1.55 



$3.47 

 $3.47 



ghanf:gadv 

 without 



ge:di[«] 



Ge:di 



hi^a'i'hno : 



this, and 



tsu : gV : wahl (o) di [^^] 

 worth 



tso:tsaga erhlawe? 



Tso:tsaga quietly 



hi?a?m:ga:? 



this amount 



tsigo : hwe : la 

 which written 



e : la?di tsigo : hw6 : 



below which written 



aghinii:?vp] 



my household furnishings 



gv:yaghuy\':e:lv:gi 

 I did pay you 



a:gwv:nv:gi 

 I just hurried 



a:hnd,:?v["] 

 lying there, It (hard) 



gada : nv : dhe : sgv : gi 



I was thinking 

 tsu :gv: wahl (o)di 

 worth 



u:ghuyv:[h(v)][i8] 

 she paid 



la ayv tso : tsaga 



I Tso: tsaga 



FREE TRANSLATION 



It just became necessary for me to write this November 3, 1857. 



Now! Now it just became possible for me to write tliat Tso. -tsaga 

 came here to me, ttie Wolftown clerk. 



"I had to move from Ts{i)sgili's, where I was Uving, without my 

 household furnishings. Ge:di asked me for them. *I paid you/ 

 she stated,"' he says. "I am in a hurry to estimate the value of what 

 was left me, I, Tso. -tsaga, have been quietly thinking. 



"I just said now: 'They are worth $5.37.' 



"Ge:di paid what is written below — $1.55. 



"What is written below is mine [yet to be paid], Tso:tsaga's — 

 $3.47." 



COMMENTARY 



The Ts{i)sgili upon whose holding or in whose home Tso: tsaga 

 lived is the Ts{i)gilie:gwa who was Chief of Wolftown in 1857. Ge:di 

 is not identified. Tso: tsaga' s purpose in coming to the clerk was to 

 record the circumstances of Ge:di's incurring the debt and to obtain 

 some legal hold upon the debtor. One notices that the arithmetic 

 displayed here is insecure: if Ge:di paid $1.55 upon a debt of $5.37, 

 she still owed $3.82, not $3.47. 



'3 The writer employes hv as a last syllable. Cherokee spelling frequently attempts to represent the 

 glottal stop by a succeeding syllable beginning with A. 



'< 'It'— the household furnishings collectively. 



i«'Katy.' 



'8 The unvoiced vowel is erroneously written i, here and subsequently. 



" See footnote 12, p. 50. 



" This is a contraction of i:Wdi and di:tsv (di:dla in the Oklahoma dialects). Eda^dl ('below') and e:ladi 

 ('earth') are frequently confused. 



" The (any consonant) »; + hv In speech often becomes (any consonant) v:h(,D). In writmg this com- 

 bination, the writer frequently omits the final syllable altogether, as he does here. 



