Horatio Hale
"the Nester of American Philologists"
it has been the good fortune of Iroquois studies that the field has attracted gifted minds. The pioneer work of Lewis H. Morgan of Rochester, New York, in ethnology was paralleled in linguistics by that of Horatio Hale of Clinton, Ontario. Both men were lawyers, both were attracted to Iroquois political organization, and each brought unique gifts to the recording of Indian life which reinforced the other's contribution: Morgan's work's on kinship and on the structure of the confederacy was enhanced by Hale's gift with languages and his sense of poetry which he fulfilled so beautifully . Some of the quality of original Iroquois comes through in his English rendering of the lament to the founders of the League:
Hail, my grandsires!
Now hearken while your grandchildren cry
mournfully to you,
-because the Great League which you established has grown old.....
Hail, my grandsires!
You have said that
Sad will be the fate of those
who come in the latter times.
Though not the founder of American linguistics, Hale was, after Gallatin, none the less, its mot distinguished practitioner, and he came by these qualities naturally.
it has been the good fortune of Iroquois studies that the field has attracted gifted minds. The pioneer work of Lewis H. Morgan of Rochester, New York, in ethnology was paralleled in linguistics by that of Horatio Hale of Clinton, Ontario. Both men were lawyers, both were attracted to Iroquois political organization, and each brought unique gifts to the recording of Indian life which reinforced the other's contribution: Morgan's work's on kinship and on the structure of the confederacy was enhanced by Hale's gift with languages and his sense of poetry which he fulfilled so beautifully . Some of the quality of original Iroquois comes through in his English rendering of the lament to the founders of the League:
Hail, my grandsires!
Now hearken while your grandchildren cry
mournfully to you,
-because the Great League which you established has grown old.....
Hail, my grandsires!
You have said that
Sad will be the fate of those
who come in the latter times.
Though not the founder of American linguistics, Hale was, after Gallatin, none the less, its mot distinguished practitioner, and he came by these qualities naturally.
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