Note 338 — Chapter XXIV

Mr. Williams says, that Mr. Eliot promised a suit of clothes to an old Indian, who, not understanding him, asked another Indian, what Mr. Eliot said. This reminds us of the well known anecdote respecting his translation of the Bible:—While Eliot was engaged in translating the Bible into the Indian language, he came to the following passage in Judges, 5:28: “The mother of Sisera looked out at the window, and cried through the lattice,” &c. Not knowing an Indian word to signify lattice, he applied to several of the natives, and endeavored to describe to them what a lattice resembled. He described it as frame work, netting, wicker, or whatever occurred to him as illustrative, when they gave him a long, barbarous and unpronouncable word, as are most of the words in their language. Some years after, when he had learned their dialect more correctly, he is said to have laughed outright, upon finding that the Indians had given him the true term for eel-pot. “The mother of Sisera looked out at the window, and cried through the eel-pot.” Bigelow’s History of Natick, p. 84. This anecdote illustrates the difficulties of translating, and may suggest a useful caution to translators.