218 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
of instruction into their minds, they might as well have essayed 
to plough the rocks of their country, with the view of reaping 
an abundant harvest. The truth of this remark was strongly 
confirmed in the circumstance of the young Esquimaux, whom, 
from an apparent shrewdness in his intellect, Capt. Ross selected 
as a fit person to be received into the gymnasium of the Victory. 
The primer was put into his hands, which he turned over and 
over with the vacant curiosity of the ape, but of the use or intent 
of which he was as ignorant as the latter animal would shew 
himself, if a fiddle were put into his paws. It must have been 
not the least of the ludicrous scenes which the school of the Vic¬ 
tory exhibited, when the young Esquimaux was called up before 
his preceptor, Capt. Ross, in order to be initiated in the rudi¬ 
ments of the English language; A, vociferated the domine, but 
the pupil made no other response, than raising his hand to his 
head, began to scratch it violently. Capt. Ross remembered that 
when a difficult word was propounded to him by his domine to 
spell, he very frequently applied his digits to his head, as if to 
give an extraordinary excitement to the brain within, and he 
therefore by analogy concluded that the motion of his young 
pupil was directed to the same purpose ; A, repeated the domine 
with increased emphasis ,—koomuck ! koomuck ! exclaimed the 
pupil, holding something between his dexter finger and his 
thumb, and shewing it to his wondering preceptor with every 
token of satisfaction,—A, cried the domine, stamping the floor 
with his foot ,—tamooawoke ! tamooawoke! vociferated the 
pupil, holding the object between his fingers close to the mouth 
of the preceptor; the meaning of the exclamations of the domine 
was an insoluble puzzle to the pupil, and the motions of the 
pupil were a problem as difficult to be solved by the preceptor. 
However amongst the learned works dispersed on the table before 
the erudite dispenser of knowledge, was an Esquimaux vocabu¬ 
lary, on referring to which it was found that the word koomuck , 
signified a vile crawling insect; which takes up its habitation 
amongst the hair of human beings, and that the word tamoo¬ 
awoke , signified to eat. It may be easily conceived that the 
discovery of these significations, could not fail to rouse the 
