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 influence in England, and King Charles had gone to seek protection in the Scottish army, that John Eliot, then in his forty-second year, having thus prepared himself, commenced his campaign.
He had had a good deal of conversation with individual Indians who came about the settlement at Roxbury, and who perceived the advantages of some of the English customs.