CEUISE OF STEAMER CORWDf IN THE ARCTIC OCEAJf. 31 



whom I have already quoted, reports that in March, 1860, he took an Indian boy on board the 

 Japanese steam-corvette Kanrin-maru, where a comparison of Coast-Indian and pure Japanese was 

 made at his request by Funkuzawa Ukitchy, then admiral's secretary ; the result of which he 

 prepared for the press and published with a view to suggest further linguistic investigation. 

 He says that quite an infusion of Japanese words is found among some of the Coast tribes of Oregon 

 and California, either pure or clipped, along with some very peculiar Japanese "idioms, construc- 

 tions, honorific, separative, and agglutinative particles;" that shipwrecked Japanese are invariably 

 enabled to communicate understandingly with the Coast Indians, although speaking quite a different 

 language, and that many shipwrecked Japanese have informed him that they were enabled to 

 co7nmunicate with and understand the natives of Atka and Adakh Islands of the Aleutian group. 



With a view to fludiug out whether any linguistic alfinity existed between Japanese and the 

 Eskimo dialects in the vicinity of Bering Straits, I caused several Japanese boys, employed as 

 servants on board the Corwin, to talk on numerous occasions to the natives, both of the American 

 and Asiatic coasts; but in every instance they were unable to understand the Eskimo, and assured 

 me that they could not detect a single word that bore any resemblance to words in their own 

 lauguage. 



The study of the linguistic peculiarities which distinguish the population around Bering- 

 Straits offers an untrodden path in a new field ; but it is doubtful whether the results, except to 

 linguists like Cardinal Mezzofauti, or philologists of the Max Midler type, would be at all commen- 

 surate with the efforts expended in this direction ; since it is asserted that the human voice is 

 incapable of articulating more than twenty distinct sounds, tlierefore whatever resemblnaces there 

 may be in the particular words of different languages are of no ethnic value. Although these may 

 be the views of many persons not only in regard to the Eskimo tongue but in regard to philology 

 in general, the matter has a wonderful fascination for more speculative minds. 



Much has been said about the affinity of language among the Eskimo — some asserting that it is 

 such as to allow mutual intercourse everj^where — but instances warrant us in concluding that con- 

 siderable deviations exist intheir vocabularies if not in the grammatical construction. For instance, 

 take two words that one hears oftener than any others: On the Alaskan coast they say "na-koo- 

 ruk," a word meaning "good," "all right," &c. ; on the Siberian coast "ma-zink-ah," while a vocab- 

 ulary collected during Lieutenant Schwatka's expedition gives the word " mah-rank'-poo" for "good." 

 The first two of these words are so characteristic of the tribes on the respective shores above the 

 straits that a better desiguatioA than any yet given to them by writers on the subject would be 

 yaJcoorools for the people on the American side and Mazinkahs for those on the Siberian coast. 

 These names, by which they know each other, are in general use among the whalemen and were 

 adopted by every one on board the Corwin. 



Again, on the American coast " Am-a-luk-tuk" signifies plentj-, while on the Srberian coast it 

 is " Num-kuck-ee." " Tee-tee-tah " means needles in Siberia, in Alaska it is "mitkin." lu the 

 latter place when asking for tobacco they say " te-ba-muk," while the Asiatics say " salopa." 

 That a number of dialects exists around Bering Straits is apparent to the most superficial observer. 

 The difference in the language becomes apparent after leaving Norton Sound. The interpreter we 

 took from Saint Michael's could only with diificidty understand the natives at Point Barrow, while 

 at Saint Lawrence Island and on the Asiatic side he could understand nothing at all. At East 

 Cape we saw natives who, though apparently alike, did not understand one another's language. I 

 saw the same thing at Cape Prince of Wales, the western extremity of the New World, whither a 

 number of Eskimo from the Wankarem River, Siberia, had come to trade. Doubtless there is a 

 community of origin in the Eskimo tongue, and these verbal divergencies may be owing to the 

 want of written records to give fixity to the language, since languages resemble li%ing organisms 

 by being in a state of continual change. Be that as it may, we know that this people has 

 imported a number of words from coming in contact with another language, just as the French 

 have incorporated into their speech "le steppeur," "I'outsider," "le high life," "le steeple chase," 

 " le jockey club," &c. — words that have no correlatives in French — so the Eskimo has appi'opriated 

 from the whalers words which, as verbal expressions of his ideation, are undoubtedly better than 

 anything in his own tongue. One of these is " by and by," which he uses with the same frequency 

 that a Spaniard does his favorite inaiianapor le manano. In this instance the words express the 



