AND KAYAK 178 



used to lead to some confusion, and that is 

 the reason why the Mission ordained some 

 years ago that the heads of the various 

 families should choose surnames. Then there 

 was some scratching of heads and racking of 

 brains to choose a name that all the families 

 could like ; and many, I expect, were the 

 arguments and the palavers before the choice 

 was made. 



Some men found a way out of the difficulty 

 by simply doubling the name they already 

 had, like Laban Laban or Josef Josef; some 

 chose Eskimo words, like our organist at 

 Okak, who called himself Sillit (Grindstone), 

 or my big sled driver, who was Kakkarsuk 

 (Little Mountain) ; some followed the old 

 plan of calling themselves after their occupa- 

 tion, like the teacher in the Eskimo day school, 

 who became Illiniartitsijok (Schoolmaster), or 

 the village coffin maker, who called himself 

 Igloliorte (The Builder of Houses !). 



Others went a little deeper in their search 

 for names. One little man, who surely had 

 some poetry in his soul, called himself Atser- 

 ta-tak, " because," he said, " that sounds to 

 me like the noise that the little birds make, 

 and we are as happy as a family of little birds." 

 And some there were who took the ordinary 

 English names that they heard among the 



