64 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



I Bull. 196 



ade : Iv 



money 



a:Be 



must 



If 



gohwe : li 

 paper 



ase : hi 



then 



guy6 : gwo : ni 

 July 



go:w6:la:gd, 

 I just wrote it 



ge:sv 

 it Is 



dfahye:ge:sdf 



to be bringing them (hard), one 



d : lu?hi : sdl hi ?ges6 : sdi 



to come, he this it will be 



du : da : dhd : ga 

 one owes them to him 



ghilo 



someone 



ganv:si:da:sdl 

 worker 



5ne i : ga 



5th day 



digo:we:H:sgi ["] 

 clerk, I 



gv:gwohw6:Io:di 

 able to write, I 



ale 



and 



u:nvn^:ge:sdf[8«] 

 they will be making haste 



f :tsa 



not 



i:ga:v 

 &u 



nu:Iu?ts\?:na 



he did not come 



u:lu?tse:[s]dl 

 to be coming, he 



ayv 

 I 



u:d6:la?df 



to hide it, he 



ghano:hv:sga 

 it tells 



igese:8[di]['59] 

 It will be 



hi?ges6:sdi 



this it will be 



gani : wahhya f™] 

 Qani:wahhya 



na : gh (a) dhah\? : na 

 he did not know 



nvga:hl(i)sdap] 



It just became 



FREE TRANSLATION 



June 21, 1858 

 Announcing that this second Monday it will take place: at 12 m., 

 at the home of Wahhyagado : ga Gana:gilv, they wiU begin to sell a 

 small number of effects left there by the late Om:da: 



Two coats; 



A pair of pants; 



A vest; 



A pair of heeled shoes; 



Two handkerchiefs; 



A white shirt; 



And that is all. 



One is to pay a little something right now and he must bring money, 

 and if someone owes, he must come here. "I owe him," he is to think 

 and to make haste to come here and bring the money and not hide 

 it. If one owes and he does not come, all wiU be written down and the 

 auctioneer will come to him. 



The auction will be July 5th. 



I, Gani: wahhya, wrote this. The secretary does not know how to 

 write, and I was able to write. 



COMMENTARY 



Auction sales of the personal effects of the deceased constitute a 

 facet of Cherokee society that, to our knowledge, has not been inten- 

 sively investigated. Up until 30 or so years ago such sales were still 



68 This word is preceded by an extraneous syllable i; the second syllable Is erroneously written ni, the 

 third syllable cv. 



«' Variant of gesi:sdi. 



" Probably a contraction of Oani:dawahhya ('Young WolP). 



'« The reference here is not to the WoKtown clerk, but to a secretary appointed to record the details of the 

 sale. In Cherokee the word for both functionaries would be identical, 



'> Variant of niga:hl{i)sda\ 



