-often written with a useless terminal
_y_--is the Anglicized pronunciation. The meaning of this seems obscure.
The final syllable _wae_, in compound words, stands for voice. In the
ancient Massachusetts language, as preserved by Eliot, in his
translation of the Bible, as in Isaiah xi. 14, Chepwoieu means the east.

What a curious subject for speculation the Indian language presents!
Since I began to dip into this topic, I have found myself irresistibly
carried forward in the inquiry, and been led to resume it, whenever the
calls of business or society have been intermitted. I have generally
felt, however, while pursuing it, like a mechanist who is required to
execute a delicate and difficult work without suitable implements.
Technical words may be considered as the working tools of inquiry, and
there seems to be a paucity of terms, in our common systems, to describe
such a many-syllabled, aggregated language as the Indian. I have been
sometimes half inclined to put my manuscripts in the fire, and to
exclaim with Dryden, respecting some metaphysical subject--

"I cannot bolt this matter to the bran."

It is not, however, the habitual temper of my mind to give up. "The
spider," it is said, "taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's
palaces;" and should a man have less perseverance than a _spider?_

_4th_. A meteor, or fire-ball, passed through the village at twilight
this evening. The weather, which has been intensely cold for the last
three days, indicates a change this evening. Meteoric phenomena of a
luminous character were universally referred to electricity, after
Franklin's day. Chemistry has since put forth reasons why several of
these phenomena should be attributed to phosphorus or hydrogen liberated
by decomposition.

_5th_. The Chippewa jugglers, or Jassakeeds, as they are called, have an
art of rendering their flesh insensible, probably for a short time, to
the effects of a blaze of fire. Robert Dickson told me that he had seen
several of them strip themselves of their garments, and jump into a
bonfire. Voltaire says, in his Essay on History, that rubbing the hand
for a long time with spirit of vitriol and alum, with the juice of an
onion, is stated to render it capable of enduring hot water
without injury.

_7th_. Acting as librarian for the garrison during the season, I am
privileged to fill up many of the leisure hours of my mornings and
evenings by reading. The difficulty appears to be, to re