PETATO'S HOSPITALITY AND STORY. 



475 



against a breast whereon has fed as robust and persevering a gen- 

 eration of Innuits as ever honored this Northern land. 



" This act of Petato's, represented in the preceding engraving, 

 is considered by the natives the very beau ideal of genuine hos- 

 pitality. Knowing this to be the custom of this people, and be- 

 lieving in the old saw that - when you are in Eome you must 

 do as the Komans do,' my heart leaped with gratitude for this 

 kindly deed of good old Petato. My feet must have been like 

 lumps of ice, and yet she quailed not at their contact with her 

 calorific body. 



" "While warming my feet in the peculiar mode written of, I 

 told Smith and the Innuit Kooksmith that I wished to have a 

 conversation with Petato relative to Kodlunarn, Oopungnewing, 

 * and Niountelik, and of white people, etc., etc. 



" I asked Petato if she knew ' heavy stone.' Asked if she ever 

 ' sat down' [that is, made her home] on Kodlunarn. To which 

 she answered l Ar-me-larng > (Yes). Then I asked, ' Shoo Innuits pil- 

 e-tay nu-na Innuit ar-ting-a nar-me?* (Why did not the Innuits 

 give to that island an Innuit name ?) L Shoo Innuits pil-e-tay kod- 

 lu-narn ar-ting-a V (Why did Innuits give white man's name to 

 it ?) Old Petato proceeded to answer these two questions thus : 



" l Am-a-su-it oo-mi-arlc-chu-a hi-ete wich-ou! wich-ou! wich-ou! 

 wich-ou / Wong-nuh hi-ete sal-e-hoo oo-mi-ark-chu-d! (A long, long, 

 long, long time ago, a great many ships came here. A northerly 

 gale prevailed, and broke — or smashed — some of the ships.) 

 That is, then it was that the island was given the name 1 Kodlu- 

 narn.' 



"Following this, I asked the question, '•Ka-chin-ning oo-mi-arlc- 

 chu-a sal-e-hoo V (How many ships were destroyed ?) Petato an- 

 swered, ' jShev-e-ming 1 (She did not know). 



"When Petato was attempting to convey to me the many 

 years ago that a great many ships came into this bay, she was 

 truly eloquent. When pronouncing the word £ wich-ou^ and re- 

 peating it, which she did the several times indicated, she lifted 

 her hands to each side of her head, raising in them handfuls of 

 her gray locks. At the same instant Kooksmith, standing by her 



* It should be said, with reference to the Esquimaux language as introduced in 

 the text, that, though it could be easily and perfectly comprehended by the Innuits 

 when spoken, and though it can be understood when read to them in its present form 

 by the natives with me in this country, it is nevertheless what we may call ''broken," 

 being such as a person would naturally use whose acquaintance with the language 

 is imperfect, as mine necessarily was. 



