Marchand, Voyage autour du monde

[David D. Robertson]

Etienne Marchand, "Voyage autour du monde", 1790-1792, Paris, n.d.  5 vols.

(As cited in H.H. Bancroft, "History of Alaska, 1730-1885", San Francisco,
A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1886, page 247.)

Bancroft says that "one of the natives of Tchinkitane' (Sitka) complained
to Marchand of a gun he had purchased of an English captain and broken in
anger because it would 'only go crick, but never poohoo!' Marchand's Voy.,
ii. 69."

This "poohoo" is a good match for a broadly distributed Pacific NW
onomatopoeia (and Chinook Jargon term) for explosive noises and events,
from farting to gunshots.

-- Dave