Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/97

78 that made me joyous (even unto dancing), came running with all her might. Though she and other Innuits have known all about this coal being here (as I find by what she and Koojesse inform me to-night), yet not a word had ever been communicated to me about it. I had, by perseverance, gained information during the year of brick and heavy stones (the latter, of course, I thought to mean iron), but nothing of coals. As soon as Koo-ou-le-arng came up, I held out my hand to her, which was full of coal, asking ' Kis-su? ' (What is this?) She answered, ' Innuit kook-um. ' By this I took it that the Innuits have sometimes used in cooking. Said I, ' Innuit, ikkumer e-a-u? ' (Did the Innuits ever use this for a fire to cook with?) ' Armelarng ' (Yes) was the instant response. I then asked, ' Noutima? ' meaning, 'Where did these coals come from?' Koo-ou-le-arng's response was, ' Kodlunarn oomiarkchua kiete amasuadlo echar ' (A great many years ago, white men with big ship came here). This answer made me still more joyous. From what I find on my return to Oopungnewing, Koo-ou-le-arng has communicated to her Innuit friends some of my conduct while on that coal-pile. She said that I acted just like an angeko, and that I had done one thing an Innuit could not do—that I had danced, and laughed, and made a complete somerset on the coal! "And why did I feel so happy? Because of the discovery I have made to-day of what is a confirmation of the testimony—oral history—I had acquired by great perseverance from the Innuits, that a great many years ago—many generations ago—kodlunarn oomiarkchua (white men with big ship) came into this bay (Tin-nu-jok-ping-oo-se-ong); because of the chain that I felt was now complete, that determined this to be the bay that Frobisher discovered in 1576, and revisited consecutively in the years 1577 and 1578, and that Niountelik,