After McKenna & Hall's copy of original.

See page 400.

THE NEW Y PUBLIC LISNY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILC N POUNDATIONS.

beautiful picture of sylvan life; that the McDougal colony will wax stronger, till every acre of the beautiful prairie is forced to yield tribute to the plow and sickle.

VIII. STORY OF SE-QUO-YAH, THE CHEROKEE CADMUS.

About the year 1763 a child was born to an Indian woman in the old Cherokee country of Georgia. He was on his father's side the grandson of a German by the name of Guess, or Ghiest, and was given the name George Guess, though he is better known as Se-Quo-Yah. He was early impressed with the thought of the superiority of the white over the red race, and wisely concluded that much of this was due to the white man's learning, and ability to represent his thoughts on paper in a way to mean the same thing to every one who saw it; unlike the picture writing then in vogue among the Cherokees, which was necessarily lacking in clearness and liable to misinterpretation.

He could neither read nor speak any language other than Cherokee, but he was a close observer, and a mechanical genius, and determined to invent a system of writing his language. In some manner, Se-Quo-Yah found out that the writing of the white man consisted in the use of characters to represent sounds. At first he thought of using one character for each word; but this was not possible because there are so many words it complicated matters too much. He finally concluded that as there were eighty-six syllables in Cherokee, he would form a series of eighty-six characters to represent them. He found that these characters could be so combined as to represent every word in the Cherokee language. Many of these characters were taken from an English spelling-book which he managed to get hold of. Some are Greek characters, and others are letters of the English alphabet reversed, the rest were specially invented.

It happened, too, from the structure of the Cherokee language or dialect, that the syllabic alphabet is also in the nature of a grammar; so that those who know the language by ear and master the alphabet, can at once read and write. Owing to the

extreme simplicity of this system, it can be acquired in a few days. Some have even learned it in one day; which is certainly very remarkable.

So much for the invention. The reader is no doubt interested in knowing more of the history of the inventor of this wonderful alphabet, which has proven such a blessing to the Cherokees.

The only remarkable thing about Se-Quo-Yah's early years appears to have been his preference for playing alone and building houses of sticks in the woods, rather than to join in the sports of Indian children of his age. His mother owned a few cows that furnished her the means of living. When her son was grown to be a sturdy boy he built a substantial milkhouse, where he helped his mother with the dairy work, showing himself an expert dairyman and adding materially to her profits.

He early displayed great interest in natural forms and unusual power of observation, and developed much skill in representing what he saw in drawing. His pictures were at first as crude as the common picture-writing of his people; but with practice his animals and men assumed more and more a living shape and an accurate expression of action. He became famed as an artist, and many visited his mother's cabin to see his pictures and to watch the wonderful process of their creation.

When he had reached early manhood this same artistic faculty led him to desire to create objects of beauty, and he turned his attention to making the silver ornaments so much prized by his people, such as armlets, brooches and clasps. There was great demand for these products of his hands, owing to the novelty of their design and the fineness of their execution. But Se-QuoYah possessed a practical vein of artistic talent. Not content with making silver trinkets, he became a blacksmith, and turned out from his forge the finest spades, rakes and hoes, which were highly appreciated by some of his tribesmen who failed to perceive the artistic quality of his silver work.

There was an individual quality about his hoes as well as his bracelets which he valued and desired to have the credit of, and he wished to put some mark upon his work that would prove

it to be his own. With this thought in mind, he went to a white neighbor with whom he was on the most friendly terms, and asked him to write his name on paper. Mr. Lowrey wrote it, using his English name, George Guess. From this Se-Quo-Yah made a die with which he stamped all the articles of silver or iron that he made.

His work had not only put much money in his pouch, but was fast making him the most popular young man of the tribe. This popularity came near being his ruin. The young men flocked about him, praised his skill, and envied him the gain it brought him. He requited their flattery with generous entertainment, according to the fashion of his people. Unfortunately contact with the white man had changed this fashion for the worse. Indians of an earlier generation had entertained their friends with feasts of game and sweet potatoes; but the young braves of 1800 and thereabouts preferred rum. Se-Quo-Yah would buy a keg of rum, and with a party of companions, would retire into the woods to remain until the rum supply was exhausted and they had recovered from its effects. The work of the forge stood still; money was getting low in the pouch.

Through the efforts of his good friend, Mr. Lowrey, Se-QuoYah was aroused to a sense of his folly and degradation before it was too late to break away from his bad habits; he gave up his idle companions, resumed his work with renewed industry and spent his leisure time among the more sedate and intelligent men of his tribe.

Among the people in whose society he was now to be found, a frequent subject of discussion was the wonderful power possessed by the white man of making curious marks upon paper, which meant the same thing to every white man to whom they might be shown; unlike the Indian's picture-writing, which meant this or that, according to the interpretation put upon it. Some characterized it as sorcery; some reverently called it a gift of the Great Spirit to his favorite children; some believed it to be a mere trick, and with the object of detecting the fraud would show a written sentence to one white man after another, expect