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Show OKLAHOMA. 201 were pure bloods, and the whole scene was a revelation to me. I had seen the savage- painted Indian, and the miserable vagabond on the white frontier; but the civilized, scholarly Indian boy and girl pre-sented a new sight. Supper over, a chapter was read, and the school united in prayers and a devotional hymn. Then we were invited to hear classes, who volunteered an evening recitation for our benefit. Their natural talent is surprising, particularly in drawing and fig-ures. Every Creek boy seems to know the law of outline by instinct. In figures they are very quick ; in reading not so apt. Creek and English being the only languages used at the Mission, every Uchee, Natchee, or Ala-bama pupil has to learn a new language before his education proper be-gins. Like the common school system of our own people, this school tends to break down tribal prej-udice, and make the peo-ple homogeneous. Two Uchee boys, of the read-ing class, conversed awhile in that language at my request. It is entirely devoid of labials ; for five " SLBH- MM- AN- DAH- MOUCH- WAH- GKR." minutes they touched the lips together but once. It also rarely re-quires the dentals ; and thus to a Uchee it is almost impossible to dis-tinguish between b and p, d and t, or a and e. This inability pro-duces most ludicrous results in spelling. Pronouncing the words to be spelled orally, the teacher can not possibly determine in the quick sound whether the spelling is correct or not that is, with Uchee beginners. But, when they come to write it on the slate, bat becomes p- e- t, hat h- e- d, bad b- e- t, etc. The Creeks are lively and affection-ate, but their original language does not contain a single term of en-dearment. Some have been adopted from the English, others formed by combining primitive words in their own tongue. The word for sweetheart has eight syllables a nice jawbreaker to murmur in a |
