442 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



panion Palaiyak they called 'Talaina;" Illun they called "Illuna;" 

 Martin (Kilian) they called "Matik." None of these names were 

 they able to improve through instruction except that they even- 

 tually learned to pronounce Palaiyak and Illun. Their mispro- 

 nunciation of Jim (Fiji) gave us endless amusement. They called 

 him first "Perk" and insisted that this was the way it sounded to 

 them when we pronounced it. Eventually they were able to change 

 it to "Zerk" — they appeared unable to hear the "m" following the 

 vowel as anything but a "k." Billy to them was "Pili" and Mac 

 was ''Mike." 



At the time of the Franklin search Dr. John Rae made a great 

 impression on the Eskimos of Coronation Gulf. They have many 

 stories which I have indubitably identified, but in all of them Rae 

 appears as "Nerk." 



It IS safe to say that many of our alleged Indian place names do 

 not come much closer to the original than "Perk" or "Zerk" to our 

 pronunciation of "Jim," which brings us back to my reason for lack 

 of enthusiasm in advocating the retention of native place names. 

 But what does distress me is a thing that occasionally happens 

 where a native name gets correctly placed on the map and is later 

 removed to make way for a mispronunciation of the same word. 

 A notable instance is one of the largest Alaskan rivers which ap- 

 peared correctly on the old maps as Kuvuk but appears now as 

 Kobuk. This is especially deplorable as it confuses this great river 

 with an even greater river nearby. The spelling Kobuk comes very 

 near being the right Eskimo name for the Yukon (called by the Es- 

 kimos Kopak) . 



