"Not much! One will do for me!"

We naturally picked up a good many words of their language; though of its structure—if it have any—we learned little. Other anxieties occupied our minds so fully, that we were not very attentive scholars. Like the Indians of our Territories, the Esquimaux seemed much addicted to running a whole sentence into a single word, or what sounded like it, of immense length. These sentence-words we could make very little of. But of their detached words, standing for familiar things, I add a vocabulary from such as I can now call to mind:—

Pillitay,Give. Give me something.
Igloo,A hut.
Igloo-ee,A hut-keeper.
Wau-ve, An egg.
Mickee,A dog.
Tuk-tuk,A reindeer.
Muck-tu,A caribou.
Tuck-tu,Seal-blubber.
Nenook,A bear.
Chymo,Trade; barter.
Eigh!Stop! Hold up! Get out!
Karrack,Wood.
Tyma,Good.
Mai,Good.
Negga-mai,Not good.
Na-mick,No.
Abb,Yes.
Singipok,Sleep.
Kayak,A canoe.
Coonee,A kiss.
Cobloo-nak,An Englishman.
Pee-o mee-wanga,I want.
Aunay,Far off.
Ye-meck,Water.
Hennelay,A woman.
We-we,A white goose.
Muck-mhameek,A knife.
Kolipsut,A lamp.
Pussay,A seal.
Awak,A walrus.
Ka-ka!Go 'long! St-'boy!
Oomiak,A large boat.
Oomiak-sook,A ship.
Kannau-weet-ameg,A dart.
Kina?What is it? What's that?
Twau-ve!Begone! Leave!

CHAPTER XV.[ToC]

Winter at Hand.—We hold a Serious Council.—"Cold! oh, how Cold!"—A Midnight Gun.—The Return of "The Curlew."—"A J'yful 'Casion."—A Grand Distribution of Presents.—Good-by to the Husky Girls.—A Singular Savage Song.—We All get Sentimental.—Adieu to "Isle Aktok."—Homeward Bound.—We engage "The Curlew" and her Captain for Another Year.

Aug. 11.—Water froze last night nearly half an inch of ice. It seemed like December in our home latitude. All day the sky was hazy and cold, with driving mists. The wind blew from the north and north-west almost continually. A fortnight had made a great change in the weather. Summer seemed to be fast merging into winter. During the afternoon and evening we held a serious "council of war;" for all hope of the return of "The Curlew" was now well-nigh abandoned. After some discussion, it was voted to stay here on the island during the winter, rather than attempt either to get out of the straits in our boat, or reach Nain overland. During the morning Shug-la-wina had come to our tent, and pointed to the oomiak then off to the southward. We knew that it was to urge us to allow them to depart southward into Labrador. The question now arose with us, Should we allow them to go according to their habit? Raed thought we ought to let them go, and not subject them to the peril of a winter passed here on the island; but Kit and Wade opposed this proposition in toto.

"Once on the mainland," said Kit, "and our control over them will cease. They would either desert us, or else be joined by numbers whom we should find it impossible to govern. Not an inch shall they budge from here while I stay."