Viewing page 594 of 661

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

(4
1861 Dec 16 Mon

& as quickly placed my Ik-ke Is-si-kans (cold feet) flatly upon her abdomen, my toes mingling among those two fountains that have fed as robust persevering a generation of Innuits as ever honored this Northern Land.
This act of Pe-Lat-tu's is considered by the natives the very [[underlined]] bear ideal [[/underlined]] of genuine hospitality.  Knowing this to be the custom of this people & believing [[?arin]] in the old saw that "When you are in Rome you must do as the Romans do", my heart leaped with gratitude for this kindly deed of good old Pe-tat-tu.  My feet must have been like lumps of ice & yet she quailed not at their contact with her calorific body.
I will here copy [[underlined]] verbatim [[/underlined]] notes written while [[underlined]] my feet were thus being warmed, [[/underlined]] the original being in note Book of Metalic surfaced paper the one containing memoranda made when a member of the "Clay Guards" wh. company escorted the remains of my honored country man Henry Clay to Ashland on their way from Cincinnati, O.
[[start quotation]] "Arrived Tupiks XII- Meridn
Feet almost frozen.  While in tupik of Oo-soo-kar-lo was taking off my feet gear for the object of holding them over the Ik-kou-er.  Pe-tat-tu, the mother of Oo-soo-kar-loo, came in just before I had taken off my socks & stockings.  She assisted in pulling them off stripping off all gear when seated on a snow shovel before me, pulled up her jacked & placed my feet directly upon her abdomen [[underlined]] where they now are, [[/underlined]] she, Pet-tat-tu, holding on with each hand to my heels.  I do this writing thus with my feet warming on the chest of a good old mother, Pet-tat-tu.
Smith sits at my right, Kod-ling-oo & her infant child Ou-lar-keer at my left, Kook-Smith by the side of the old lady.  I am seated on the bed facing entrance to tupik Ik-koo-mer each side burning - feet warming for 1/2 hour!  Not let them go yet!  While now warming feet thus, Old Pet-tat-tu says she has lived on Oo-pung-ne-wing - has seen the "heavy stone" long time ago before Kook-Smith was born - recollects seeing Innuits lifting it - says it was in Igloo on end of Island farther (S.E. side).  Came from Kod-lu-narn.  Says it was just beyond where Igloos are usually made.  She is now describing it to Kook-Smith the location by a stone

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

(5)
1861 Dec 16 Mon

(in tupik we are now in) covered with Ook-sook.  Carried over there when Sun was high on Kum-mi-tie.  Says When Ships amasuadlo came up here - long time ago they bring the "heavy stone" here - her mother's Grandmother's Grandfather knew about it!  Pe-tat-tu trying to tell how old she is by telling how many years she has lived at each place her final exclamation [[underlined]] amasuadlo. [[/underlined]]  She is all of 70 years of age.  Kod-lu=nar Island has had that name amasuadlo years - the gray hairs upon her (Ps) head - her deeply interesting account of the long time ago Wich-ou!  Wich-ou!!  Wich-ou!!  WICH-OU!!!! - the raising the locks of her hair by herself & Kook-Smith.  Oo-Ki-jox-y tak-oo nar-me! but tesse-[[?per]] am-a-su-it.  Her (Pet-tat-tu) mother - her mother's Grand-mother & her mother's Grandmother's Grandfather knew about it!  The most interesting interview I ever had.  Pet-tat-tu communicative by words & acts.  The disheveled - entangled hair of old Pe-tat-tu with took-too hairs abundantly intermixed!  [[end quotation]]
I now proceede with particulars:  I premise by saying that young Smith proved of great assistance as an interpreter in my interview with old Petatu.  Smith was never in this Northern Country before this voyage & yet so readily does he acquire the language of Innuits that he already excells any one of the status whom I have met.  He is an adept in Esquimaux lingo.
While warming my feet in the peculiar mode written of I told Smith & the Innuit Kook-Smith that I wished to have a conversation with Pet-tat-tu relative Kod-lu-narn, Oo-pung-ne-wing & Ni-oun-te-lik & of White people tc. etc.
1st Asked Pet-tat-tu if she tessapu "heavy stone"? - Asked if she ever sat down on Kod-lu-narn?  To wh. she answered: 'itr-me-larng' (Yes)
Then asked:-
Shoo Innuits pil-e-tay nu-na Innuits ar-ting-a nar-me?  (Why did not the Innuits give to that Island an Innuit name?)  Shoo Innuits pil-e-tay Kod-lu-narn ar-ting-a?  (Why did the Innuits give White man's name to it?  Old Pe-tat-tu proceeded to answer these 2 questions thus:
Am-a-su-it Oo-mi-ark-chu-a Ki-ete Wich-ou?  [[underlined]] Wich-ou!  Wich-ou!  WICH-OU! [[/underlined]] wong-nuk Ki-ete sul-e-koo oo-mi-ark-chu-a.  (A long, long, long, long time ago a great many ships came here - a Northerly Gale prevailed & broke (or smashed) some of the ships - (that is, then it was that the Island was given the name 'Kod-lu-narn' - this the tacit inference)
Following this, asked the question: Ka-chin-ning oo-mi-ark-chu-a sal-e-koo?  (How many ships were destroyed?)

Transcription Notes:
Every line commences with a quotation mark - not transcribed except at beginning of text with same.