ADVANCED EDUCATION OF THE GREENL ANDERS. 69 



educational knowledge. Their school is well attended, and read- 

 ing and writing are carried on admirably. 



Yery few persons here at home have any true conception of the 

 great advance made in education by these Greenland-Esquimaux. 

 It has often astonished me when listening to the apt and ready 

 way in which even children would pronounce some of their ex- 

 traordinarily long words, some of those words consisting of no 

 less than fifty letters ! 



The following is one of their long words, but not the longest: 



Piniagagssakardluarungnaerangat. 



In all the trials made on one occasion in the cabin, by both 

 male and female — by old and young — by all, I found none but 

 could read, and read well. 



I was surprised to see the rapidity — the full, clear enunciation 

 of every syllable, with which they read; and one little Esqui- 

 maux boy seemed to exceed the rest, though all did well. 



Perhaps I can not give my readers a better idea of this than re- 

 printing a small portion of a child's First Primer, beginning at 

 the alphabet, and giving the sound of each letter. The explana- 

 tion was carefully made to me by Miss Biilou. 



The Greenland-Esquimaux alphabet consists of twenty-four let- 

 ters, as follows : 



A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, K', L, M, 1ST, 0, P, E, S, T, U, Y, Y, 



m, o. 



The sound of each letter only varies from what we give to the 

 same in the following : 



G is ke ; H, ho ; I, e ; J, yoge ; K, qu ; K', qu ; E, er ; U, oo ; 

 Y, oe-i. 



The following is the Lord's Prayer in Esquimaux : 

 " Atatarput killangmetottina ! Akkit usfornarfille ! Nalasga- 

 vet tikkiudle ! Pekkosfset Hillangmifut nunnamisaak taimaikil- 

 le! Tunnisfigut udlome pikfavtinnik ! Pisfaraunatta akketfo- 

 ravta, pisfaengillavuttaak akketfortivut ! Usfernartomut pishtfa- 

 raunatta, ajortomidle annautigut! Nalaagaunerogavit pirfarfou- 

 nerudluttidlo usfornarnerudluttidlo isfokangittomut. Amen." 



The minister Kjer has been at work translating " Eobinson 

 Crusoe" into Esquimaux, that copies might be printed and dis- 

 tributed among his people in Greenland. In his library there 

 is an Esquimaux Bible, and every thing is done to make the 

 natives of Holsteinborg good and happy. Dr. Eink has also is- 



