John Muir, parts 2 & 3

[Dave Robertson]

[Part II:  The Trip of 1880]
Chapter XIV
Sum Dum Bay
These became more and more numerous and exciting, and our Indians shouted joyfully, "Hi yu salmon! Hi yu muck-a-muck!" while the water about the canoe and beneath the canoe was churned by thousands of fins into silver fire… "Ice-mountain hi yu kumtux hide,"--glaciers know how to hide extremely well,--said Tyeen, as he rested for a moment after rounding a huge granite shoulder of the wall whence we expected to gain a view of the extreme head of the fiord… When we were tracing this curve, however, in a leisurely way, in search of a good landing, we were startled by Captain Tyeen shouting, "Skookum chuck! Skookum chuck!" (strong water, strong water), and found our canoe was being swept sideways by a powerful current, the roar of which we had mistaken for a waterfall… "There is your lost friend, "said the Indians laughing; "he says, 'Sagh-a-ya'" (how do you do)? And while berg after berg was being born with thundering uproar, Tyeen said, "Your friend has klosh tumtum (good heart). Hear! Like the other big-hearted one he is firing his guns in your honor."  I stayed only long enough to make an outline sketch, and then urged the Indians to hasten back some six miles to the mouth of a side cañon I had noted on the way up as a place where we might camp in case we should not find a better. After dark we had to move with great caution through the ice. One of the Indians was stationed in the bow with a pole to push aside the smaller fragments and look out for the most promising openings, through which he guided US, shouting, "Friday! Tucktay!" (shoreward, seaward) about ten times a minute… When the Indians came ashore in the morning and saw the condition of my tent they laughed heartily and said, "Your friend [meaning the big glacier] sent you a good word last night, and his servant knocked at your tent and said, 'Sagh-a-ya, are you sleeping well?'"

Chapter XV
>From Taku River to Taylor Bay
Coming alongside with a goodnatured "Sagh-a-ya," they inquired who we were, our objects, etc., and gave us information about the river, their village, and two other large glaciers that descend nearly to the sea-level a few miles up the river cañon.

[Part III:  The Trip of 1890]
Chapter XVII
In Camp at Glacier Bay
June 28. A light rain. We were visited by two parties of Indians. A man from each canoe came ashore, leaving the women in the canoe to guard against the berg-waves. I tried my Chinook and made out to say that I wanted to hire two of them in a few days to go a little way back on the glacier and around the bay. They are seal-hunters and promised to come again with "Charley," who "hi yu kumtux wawa Boston"--knew well how to speak English.



--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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