THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 441 



and the same name written by a trapper or trader do not resemble 

 each other even remotely. To illustrate this I shall give several 

 examples of Eskimo words as they sound to me after I have ac- 

 quired the language and as they sounded to me when I first came 

 North. 



Between Herschel Island and the Mackenzie River is a point 

 which may be Escape Reef of Sir John Franklin. It is now called 

 by the whites and is likely to continue being called Appawuchi 

 (where the "u," as in all Eskimo words written by me, has prac- 

 tically the sound of "oo" in poor). Now that I know and speak the 

 language, this word sounds to me like Akpaviatsiak (Ak-pa-vi-at- 

 si-ak). Here some of the sounds have been changed and six sylla- 

 bles have by white man's practice been contracted into four. 



There is at Herschel Island an Eskimo called by the whites 

 "Cockney." At first I thought this was a nickname applied by 

 one of the early whalers. When I asked the man for his native name 

 he gave it to me in a way that sounded to me at the time very much 

 like "Cockney" and I realized that the white men were really at- 

 tempting the approximation of the real name. But now that I am 

 familiar with the language it sounds to me like Kanirk, which cer- 

 tainly is not very close to "Cockney." 



In his book, "Conquering the Arctic Ice," Mikkelsen speaks of 

 the father of the girl killed b}^ sympathetic magic as Osuruk. I 

 write that man's name Oyarayak. There was in the vicinity of 

 Flaxman Island an Eskimo woman married to a white man who was 

 called by her husband and some of the other white men Kasha 

 (spelled by them Cassia). After I learned this woman's name from 

 herself I asked her husband why he called her Kasha and he an- 

 swered, "Because it is her name," which he later explained by saying 

 that it was as near as he cared to bother to come, for in his opinion 

 it was of little consequence how native names were pronounced. 

 Some of the whalers differed with him in this opinion and were 

 particular to call his wife Kaya. Still others called her Ikaya. I 

 now write that woman's name Ikkayuak. 



Both at this time and later I tried to teach the Minto Inlet 

 Eskimos to pronounce correctly my own name and the names of my 

 companions. They had already decided that my name was prop- 

 erly pronounced "Nappahinna" but I eventually taught them to say 

 "Stepahinna," which was as near as they could get it. My own 

 Mackenzie and Alaska Eskimo companions called me "Sitepasi." 

 Captain Gonzales they called by an imitation of his first name, 

 Henry, which was pronounced Annul. My Mackenzie River com- 



