SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ESKIMO 



interest in learning our language. Of course they wanted 

 to know the names of the men in our party, and they made 

 a desperate effort at pronouncing them. They could not 

 say " Ray," the name of our commanding officer, but by 

 prefixing the syllable ou, they said plainly " Ou-ray." To 

 some words they had to add a syllable, in order to pro- 

 nounce them. Smith they pronounced " See-miss-ee." 

 Herendeen they called E-tic and some few said Er-e-tic. 

 The name of Mr. Dark, our astronomer, they could not 

 pronounce. Their own word for night or darkness is tah. 

 We told them that dark and tah meant the same thing, 

 and Mr. Dark was afterward known among them as Tah. 

 Dr. Oldmixon's name they could not pronounce. He was 

 known as the " kabloonah doctor," which title they pro- 

 nounced very well, except that they always represent the 

 sound of d by that of t. They asked us a great many 

 questions about the " kab-lu-nah nu-na " (white man's 

 ground). We explained as well as we were able and 

 showed them a great many pictures 

 of objects for which they had no 

 names. If any four-legged animal of 

 which we showed the picture was as 

 large as a caribou, or even an ele- 

 phant, they called it " took-tu," their 

 name for caribou. Any kind of a 

 house which we showed they named 

 "ig-lu." Ships sailing through the 

 water they comprehended, having 

 seen them, but the railway steam 

 engine going over the "nu-na" (land) 

 they could not understand. They 

 said they would like very much to 

 see our land, and one of them said if 

 he were to go there he would have so 

 much to " tow-took " (see) that he could " see-nik pee-juk " 

 (sleep not). I asked the " mickanini " whom we had named 

 Pinkerton to leave his cold country and go home with me. 

 He looked up in my eyes and asked in an earnest tone 

 " E-lu-it nu-na kowkow am-a-dri-ni-ok-to? " When I an- 

 swered in the affirmative and told him that we had " much 



129 



