KoDiAK Not Kadiak 



397 



in the center and bound around by seven 

 gold rods. The handle end was lost ; 

 but this is the only ancient scepter 

 known before that of Tarentum, 4,000 

 years later. Several miles to the north 

 of Abydos were this year discovered the 

 royal tombs of a king several centuries 

 later, with eighteen chambers sixty feet 

 under ground. 



Thus the egyptologist has now iden- 

 tified the names of king after king in 

 those ancient times which were ' ' as old 

 in the days of Exodus as the Exodus is 

 in our time." As Professor Flinders- 

 Petrie says, the historian now knows 

 ' ' far more about the civilization of these 

 oldest known kings than we do about 

 our own Saxon kings of England." 



KODIAK NOT KADIAK 



OFF the coast of Alaska, near 

 Cook Inlet, is a large island 

 which has had trouble with its 

 name — trouble with its spelling, trouble 

 with its pronunciation. 



The spelling now adopted by the U.S. 

 Board on Geographic Names is Kodiak 

 (pronounced Ko'-di-ak), this being a 

 reversal of the decision Kadiak made 

 by the same Board about 10 years ago. 

 The universal local usage as to this 

 name is Kodiak. Such, also, is the 

 general usage on the Pacific coast. It 

 is this widely extended and firmly es- 

 tablished usage which has led the Board 

 to discard an alleged ' ' correct ' ' form 

 and adopt an alleged ' ' corrupt ' ' form 

 which local usage has firmly established. 



Kodiak is a large island about 100 

 miles long by 50 miles wide. Its prin- 

 cipal town (population in 1900 341) 

 was called St. Paul by the Russians, and 

 is now called both St. Paul and Kodiak. 

 The post-office in this town, established 

 in August, 1888, is called Kodiak. 



The island was discovered by Stephen 

 Glotof, a Russian fur hunter, who an- 

 chored in Alitak (Kaniat) Bay, in the 

 southwestern part of the island, on Sep- 

 tember 8, 1763. He learned from the 

 natives that the island was by them 

 called Kikhtak.^ Kikhtuk is the Innuit 

 word for island.'^ Petrof says :'^ 



' ' Kikhtak or Kikhtowik is the Innuit 

 word for island. At the present day 



( 1 886) the natives of the peninsula speak 

 of the Kadiak people simply as Kikh- 

 tagamutes, islanders. The tribal name 

 appears to have been Kaniag, and the 

 Russian appellation now in use was 

 probably derived from both." 



Martin Sauer,* who wrote the account 

 of Billings' expedition, 1785-1794, says: 



' ' Shelikof has called this island Kich- 

 tak as the original name of it, in which, 

 however, he is mistaken, for Kichtak 

 or Kightak is merely an island ; they 

 call the Trinity Island Kightak Sich- 

 tunak, thus, Kightak Kadiak ; and to 

 mj^ astonishment one of them called 

 Alaska a Kightak or island. ' ' 



Cook,^ in 1778, got the name Kodiak 

 from the Russian Ismailof . This spell- 

 ing was followed by Meares, 1788, Van- 

 couver, 1794, and Langsdorf,'' 1804, who 

 has Kodiak, Kadjak, or Kuktak — •/. £-., 

 Great Island. The British Admiralty 

 charts, Nos. 260, 278, 787, 2172, 2460,, 

 and 2558, followed the spelling Kodiak. 

 Sauer,' about 1790, has Kadiak, and so 

 also has lyUtke,** 1836. Dixon, 1789, 

 hasKodiacand Codiac; Lisianski, 1804, 

 has Cadiack. At the time of the pur- 

 chase of Alaska the form Kodiak ("pro- 

 nounced Ko'-dy-ak) was in general use 

 among English-speaking people, and 

 the same form, Kodiak (pronounced 

 Kad-yak), was in general use among 

 the Russians. Dall * says : 



' ' The Russian O when not accented 



