No.'^TSr' ^^^' CHRONICLES OF WOLFTOWN — KILPATRICK 109 



Li : yedi Gelayi : ni 



E: tsini 

 Lusi:n(i)di 

 Tsi:n{i)si 

 Lo:si 

 A:li:si:ni 

 Tsinilv'.gi 



COMMENTARY 



The "Cherokee Hymn Book" in Sequoyah syllabary was largely 

 the work of the young Cherokee scholar Elias Boudinot (1802-39) 

 and the missionary Samuel A. Worcester (1798-1859). It is still in 

 use, in both North Carolina and Oklahoma, having gone through 

 many editions and having been expanded from 33 hymns, as first 

 issued at New Echota, Ga., in 1829, to 135 hymns plus some 

 doxologies and temperance songs. 



The Cherokee, surely one of the most musically gifted of all tribes, 

 possess a unique if moribund Christian hymnology that stands deeply 

 in need of scholarly investigation. Most of the texts and tunes are 

 seemingly of White origin, but many of them do not appear to have 

 survived anywhere else than in the Cherokee churches. All indica- 

 tions point to the adoption by the Cherokees, early in their contact 

 with Christianity, of the practice of singing in four-part harmony. 



The singing class reported in this document may have used the 

 ninth edition of the "Cherokee Hymn Book," issued at the Mission 

 Press at Park Hill in 1854 (Hargrett, 1951, pp. 58-59). This edition 

 contained some additional translations by the Cherokee preacher 

 Stephen Foreman (1807-81). The division into "two groups" may 

 be in reference to the customary seating arrangement in Cherokee 

 churches, the males on the right-hand side of the pulpit, the females 

 on the left-hand side, or it may refer to singing in parts. The passage 

 is obscure. 



In the column on the document's left is a list of masculine names, 

 in that on the right a list of feminine names. Probably most, if not 

 all, of those listed are young folk. There may be some significance 

 in the fact that in the second entry, dating some 7 months later than 

 the first, more than half of the males had dropped out. One wonders 

 if the Confederate forces were the gainer and a lack of males the 

 reason for a corresponding dip in attendance on the left-hand side of 

 Echota Methodist Mission. 



The Mooney notation "Names of singing class" and the query 

 "Army List ?" need no comment. 



747-014—66 8 



