colonists, in corroboration of which the
following story is given:--"The Indians in their wars with us, finding a
sore inconvenience by our dogs, which would make a sad yelling if in the
night they scented the approaches of them, they sacrificed a dog to the
devil, after which no English dog would bark at an Indian for divers
months ensuing."

In the intended contest Mr. Eliot began by preaching and making
collections from the English settlers, and likewise "he hires a native to
teach him this exotick language, and, with a laborious care and skill,
reduces it into a grammar, which afterwards he published. There is a
letter or two of our alphabet which the Indians never had in theirs;
though there were enough of the dog in their temper, there can scarce be
found an R in their language, . . . but, if their alphabet be short, I am
sure the words composed of it are long enough to tire the patience of any
scholar in the world; they are _Sesquipedalia verba_, of which their
linguo is composed. For instance, if I were to translate our Loves, it
must be nothing shorter than _Noowomantamoonkanunonush_. Or to give my
reader a longer word, _Kremmogkodonattootummootiteaonganunnnash_ is, in
English, our _question_."

The worthy Mr. Mather adds, with a sort of apology, that, having once
found that the demons in a possessed young woman understood Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew, he himself tried them with this Indian tongue, and "the
demons did seem as if they understood it." Indeed, he thinks the words
must have been growing ever since the confusion of Babel! The fact
appears to be, that these are what are now called agglutinate languages,
and, like those of all savage tribes, in a continual course of
alteration--also often using a long periphrastic description to convey an
idea or form a name. A few familiar instances will occur, such as
_Niagara_, "thunder of water."

This formidable language Mr. Eliot--the anagram of whose name, Mather
appropriately observes, was _Toils_--mastered with the assistance of a
"pregnant-witted Indian," who had been a servant in an English family. By
the help of his natural turn for philology, he was able to subdue this
instrument to his great and holy end,--with what difficulty may be
estimated from the sentence with which he concluded his grammar: "Prayer
and pains through faith in CHRIST JESUS will do anything."

It was in the year 1646, while Cromwell was gradually obtaining a
preponderating in