100 sno ilEp: London, Jack. "The White Silence."

[David Robertson]

(_Overland Monthly_, February, 1899.)

TakamonEk sno ilEp ukuk mun, Jack London ya-munk-c!Em kakwa:

'"Yes, Ruth," continued her husband, having recourse to the macaronic
jargon in which it was alone possible for them to understand each other:
"wait till we clean up and pull for the Outside.  We'll take the White
Man's canoe and go to the Salt Water.  Yes, bad water, rough water --
great mountains dance up and down all the time.  And so big, so far, so
far away -- you travel ten sleep, twenty sleep, forty sleep" (he
graphically enumerated the days on his fingers), "all the time water, bad
water.  Then you come to great village, plenty people, just the same
mosquitoes next summer.  Wigwams oh, so high -- ten, twenty pines.  Hi-yu
skookum!"

'He paused impotently, cast an appealing glance at Malemute Kid, then
laboriously placed the twenty pines, end on end, by sign language.
Malemute Kid smiled with cheery cynicism; but Ruth's eyes were wide with
wonder, and with pleasure; for she half believed he was joking, and such
condescension pleased her poor woman's heart.

'"And then you step into a -- a box, and pouf! up you go."  He tossed his
empty cup in the air by way of illustration, and as he deftly caught it,
cried:  "And biff! down you come.  Oh, great medicine-men!  You go Fort
Yukon, I go Arctic City -- twenty-five sleep -- big string, all the time
-- I catch him string -- I say, 'Hello, Ruth!  How are ye?' -- and you
say, 'Is that my good husband? -- and I say 'Yes' -- and you say, 'No can
bake good bread, no more soda' -- then I say, 'Look in cache, under flour;
good-by.'  You look and catch plenty soda.  All the time you Fort Yukon,
me Arctic City.  Hi-yu medicine-man!"'

Macaronic jargon, eh?
Dave


 *VISIT the archives of the CHINOOK jargon and the SALISHAN & neighboring*
		    <=== languages lists, on the Web! ===>
	   http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/salishan.html
	   http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/chinook.html