124 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



tion, and indeed were extremely proud of serving 

 the Soniow Okey Mow, and the Muskeeky Okey 

 Mow, as they had named us, which, being inter- 

 preted, signifies the " Great Golden Chief," and 

 "My Master, the Great Medicine." And w^e 

 found constant amusement over our camp-fire at 

 night in teaching them English words, and learning 

 Cree. The circumstance that there were some words 

 which were almost identical in the two languages — 

 words which had been adopted from one language 

 into the other — struck them as very ludicrous, and 

 they never tired of laughing over jpemmicarn, " pem- 

 mican;" milshisin, "moccasin;" shugow, " sugar;" and 

 the like. And when we used wrong words for others 

 very similar, as we fi:'equently did purposely — calling 

 the old man Kekekooarsis, Kekwaharkosis, or the 

 " Little Wolverine ;" or an Indian named Gaytchi 

 Mohkamarn, or " The Big Knife," Matchi Mohka- 

 marn, "The Evil Knife" — the joke was always irre- 

 sistible, and they rolled about and held their sides in 

 fits of laughter. 



On the fourth day after leaving La Belle Prairie, 

 we reached the camping ground, where we expected 

 to meet Indians, but found the camp broken up, 

 and saw by the tracks that the party had dispersed 

 in various directions. We therefore kept on in a 

 straight line for the prairie. The weather had 

 become colder and colder, and as we passed over 

 a large lake just before dark, the wdnd blew so 

 keenly that our faces ached again, and our teeth 

 chattered, although we hurried over it into a little 



