THE ESQUIMAUX LANGUAGE. — VARIOUS DIALECTS. 161 



" While in the tent, Tookoolito brought out the book I had 

 given her, and desired to be instructed. She has got so she can 

 spell words of two letters, and pronounce most of them properly. 

 Her progress is praiseworthy. . At almost every step of advance- 

 ment, she feels as elated as a triumphant hero in battle. She is 

 far more anxious to learn to read and write than Ebierbing. I 

 feel greater confidence (allowing it were possible to feel so) in the 

 success of my mission since engaging these two natives. They 

 can talk with me in my own vernacular, are both smart, and will 

 be useful each in the department they will be called upon to fill. 

 Tookoolito will especially fill the place of an interpreter, having 

 the capacity for it surpassing Karl Petersen, the Dane, who has 

 been employed as Esquimaux interpreter by various expeditions 

 in search of Sir John Franklin — 1st, by Captain Penny, 1850-1 ; 

 2d, by Dr. Kane, 1853-5 ; 3d, by Captain (now Sir Leopold) 

 M'Clintock, 1857-9. 



''Tookoolito, I have no doubt, will readily accomplish the dif- 

 ferences in language between the Innuits of Boothia and King 

 William's Land, and that of her own people around Northumber- 

 land Inlet and Davis's Strait. The pronunciation of the same 

 words by communities of Esquimaux living at considerable dis- 

 tances from each other, and having but little intercourse, is so dif- 

 ferent that it is with difficulty they are understood one by the 

 other. I should judge, from the very great difference of the lan- 

 guage as spoken by the Greenlanders and the natives on the west 

 side of Davis's Strait, that Petersen was of little service to M'Clin- 

 tock as an Esquimaux interpreter. This conclusion would be ar- 

 rived at by any one reading the narrative of M'Clintock's inter- 

 views with the natives on King William's Land. 



" The Greenlanders have a mixed language consisting of Dan- 

 ish and Esquimaux, * " x " * * * * Even the intercourse 

 of the whalers with the Esquimaux around Northumberland In- 

 let has introduced among them many words that are now in con- 

 stant use. Tookoolito informed me to-day that the words picka- 

 ninny, for infant ; cooney, for wife ; pussy, for seal ; Husky, for 

 Innuit ; smoketute, for pipe, and many other words, are not Es- 

 quimaux, though in use among her people. 



" I now complete the tupic interview. Before I was aware of 

 it, Tookoolito had the 1 tea-kettle' over the friendly fire-lamp, and 

 the water boiling. She asked me if I drank tea. Imagine my 

 surprise at this, the question coming from an Esquimaux in an 



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