He went in a whale boat with a crew of
Iwillik Esquimaux, and while there met with a party of the natives. I
subsequently had a talk with the captain's Iwillik crew and inquired
about the people of Sedluk. They told me that their language was
"old-fashioned" and that their arms and implements were mostly of the
obsolete pattern of the Stone Age.
Though living so near together there had been no communication between
the nations; and only once before, about three years previous to my
visit to Hudson Bay, when a whale had gone ashore on Sedluk, an Iwillik
native on board the vessel that killed the whale went with the crew to
claim the carcases and brought news of the foreign country and its
people. I was told that the language of these people of Sedluk was
similar to that spoken by the fathers and grandfathers of the Iwillik
tribe. They had evidently the same origin, and while one became
improved by intercourse with foreign nations and adopted words from
foreign tongues, the other remained as it was in the past, unimproved
by interchange of ideas. I have never seen anything like a full
glossary of the Esquimaux language, and believe that at this time, when
Arctic affairs are attracting so much attention everywhere, a list of
the most important words used in communicating with the natives, and
the method of uniting them, would prove quite interesting. My
experience was that though we at first found it difficult to talk with
the interior tribes they soon caught the idea and conversation became
easy. Innukpizookzook, an Ooqueesiksillik woman who with her husband
joined our party on Hayes River, learned the method of communication in
two weeks, so that it was as easy to hold conversation with her as with
any of those who came with us from Hudson Bay and had been accustomed
to the peculiar language since their birth. In fact, as a general
thing, we found the women much brighter than the men, not only in
acquiring language but in understanding the descriptions of wonderful
things in the white men's country.
It used to be an endless source of amusement to the men, women, and
children in the Arctic regions to look at the pictures in the
illustrated books and journals. Colored maps were also very attractive
to them, and the large type in advertisements apparently afforded them
great pleasure. They were not at particular to hold the pictures right
side up; side-wise or upside down seemed quite as satisfactory. Though
admiring pictures exceedingly, I did not find them very proficient
draughtsmen, and yet nothing seemed to give them more pleasure than to
draw with a lead pencil on the margin of every book they could get hold
of, and my Nautical Almanac and "Bowditch's Epitome" are profusely
illustrated by them. Their favorite subjects were men and women and
other animals, always drawn in profile and with half the usual number
of feet and legs visible.
GLOSSARY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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