Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/321

300 Bay, where he had been to fetch her to his home. I was anxious for a conversation with her, as she could give me much information, from native traditions and personal observation, about the Frobisher expeditions of 1576-8; but it was not until the next day that I had the opportunity. Next morning I went on shore at Cooper's Island, a small island near the George Henry in Rescue Harbour, where Ebierbing, Tookoolito, and Ookijoxy Ninoo lived in tupics. Our conversation commenced by my leading the way, through Ebierbing, his wife acting as interpreter, which, aided by my own increasing knowledge of the language, enabled me to quite understand the old lady's narrative. Ebierbing said that "he well recollected, when a boy, seeing, on an island near Oopungnewing, oug (something red, which I inferred, from his subsequent explanation, to mean bricks) and coal. At that time he knew not what those things were, but when he visited England in 1855, he there saw bricks, and understood their use for the first time. Coal he had seen on board an English whaler previous to that, but not until years after his noticing these things on the island. He said he used to play with these bricks, piling them up in rows and in various forms, as children often do, and also marked stones with them, and was delighted to see the red strokes. He also remembered Innuit women using the bricks, whenever they could be obtained, for polishing the brass ornaments worn on the head. Likewise he could well remember how some of his aged people told him that many—a great many years ago, ships came into the Bay Tin-nu-jok-ping-oo-se-ong" (Frobisher Bay). This was Ebierbing's statement. I now proceed to that of his grandmother. But, before doing this, let me describe the scene as it was at the time of my receiving the following important communication from her.

Her tupic was very small—only large enough to hold herself comfortably in a sitting or reclining posture—but I managed to squeeze in beside her, seating myself at her right side. Tookoolito was outside by the entrance, facing the old lady and myself.