Ki, Diau-ni--_Ye are_. Iah atta-win--_They shall be_.
Iau-wug--_They are_.
There is probably no language so barbarous as not to have words to
address God. But, of all languages under heaven, the Indian dialects
appear to me the most fruitful in terminations and adjuncts to point
their expressions, and to give to them living and spiritual meanings.
They appear, by their words, to live in a world of spirits. Aside from
the direct words for Father, as the universal Parent, and of Maker, and
Great Spirit, they have an exact term for the Holy Ghost; and he who has
ever heard a converted Indian pray, and can understand his petition,
will never afterwards wish to read any philological disquisitions about
the adaptation of their languages to the purposes of Christianity.
_Dec. 2d_. I determined that part of the diversions of my first winter
at Mackinack should consist of notices of its meteorology, the changes
of winds and currents in the straits, &c. Shut out from the world by a
long expanse of coasts, which cannot be navigated in the winter, much of
the sum of our daily observation must necessarily take its impress from
local objects.
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