A chinese camp cook who spoke Chinook Jargon

[Leanne Riding]

Here is another selection of passages where a chinese immigrant and chinook
jargon are linked. I can't remember if I have submitted it before. These anecdotes
were found in an old book which is online, describing a chinese camp cook
called Charlie Fook. It is very old, and contains some annoying (but well-intentioned)
  stereotypes -- worth reading all the same. The setting is a surveyors camp
up Indian Arm, a fiord north of Vancouver, BC.

"Next afternoon our party gathered on the wharf to go off on the survey expedition.
  There were quite a number of us, and heaps of bundles, bags, blankets, boxes
of provisions, and ample cooking gear. We were to go up in a tug, that is,
  a sort of coasting steamer. And great work we had to get on board it, for
there were some ladies in the party, and Charlie Fook, the Chinese cook, was
flying round, gathering up his tools; and for a while there was a lively time.
  But finally we started."

...

""Oh Charlie!" cried the leader of our party, a few minutes after we had left
the wharf, "have got bread?" Chinese Charlie looked in a horrified way at
the bundles and boxes which surrounded him, and replied solemnly, "No Got!
" Then there was a consultation with the captain of the Fairy; her head was
slewed round, and we made for the wharf again, but passing near Hastings Saw-Mills,
  a man waved to us. We ran in, and a sackful of loaves was rolled on board.
  Then we went off again up the Inlet.

...

"Then there was Charlie, the cook, so called because his Chinese name was
unpronounceable. He was a capital cook, indeed, and a most attentive servant;
  as clean a Chinaman as I ever met. His bed, as I have mentioned, was in the
cook-house. We used to go and look at it. He always kept it in perfect order;
  had a feather pillow with him, and a looking-glass, and much more toilet
apparatus than any of us considered necessary for ourselves. He was particularly
nice in dress and person, and he always came up to the mark with a smile, though
his language was mysterious; for he had thrown over "pigeon English" as low,
  and now spoke what he called "ploppa Inglis." It was a mixture of certain
words of our tongue, mispronounced, and "Chinook Jargon." But he well understood
what we said to him, rarely made a mistake, and was a favorite with all of
us."

...

"...after two hundred feet or so of ascent, the cliff became more "slantindicular"
; there were some bushes to hold on to, and I, for one, was very glad when
we struck the trail, and found easier going. Up there, we met some Indians,
  who, after "Kla-how-ya" and certain Chinook mysteries had been gone through,
  explained that fishing that day was useless; they had caught none."

...

"A dip into the sea put all to rights and ready for Charlie's cry of "Muck-a-muck!
" which he supposed meant supper; but it really is the Chinook word for food
of any kind."

...

"That night Charlie said, "The blead is high!--he meant stale, but he added,
  "Allee same, I toast him; he be welly good."; and so we had hot buttered
toast to supper, and much good food besides. For Charlie made us cakes and
boiled ham and fried eggs, and gave us potted meats and fruits, and our needs
were well supplied. Indeed, our only want was milk for tea--and oh, we did
drink tea."
...

"The [crew] chief sat aft, high on the stern of the boat; Charlie was perched
up in front upon a pile of bedding, with his pigtail coiled "fair amidships"
  by command. He looked very solemn that day; we could not make him laugh, no
matter how we tried."

There is a drawing of Charlie on page 225. He did look rather sharp.

Edward Roper sprinkled anecdotes about CJ throughout his travelogue. The Jargon
dictionary that he possessed was "A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, the
Indian Trade Language of the Pacific Coast" produced by T.N. Hibben, of Victoria,
  and purchased in Vancouver. He also quoted all the words that he thought
were slang or technical trade words.

http://www.ourroots.ca/e/viewpage.asp?id=485567

Roper, Edward. "On the Fraser." By track and trail : a journey through Canada.
  London, England: W.H. Allen, 1891. 325.

-- Leanne (http://timetemple.com)




On Thursday, November 25, 2004, at 03:48 , David Robertson wrote:

>
>
> This passage has additional interest because it's one of the few anecdotes
> I know of that definitely put Chinook Jargon and Chinese immigrants in the
> same place at one time.  The only other I can think of tells of Chief
> Tonasket (Okanagans of Washington State) supposedly threatening a Chinese
> miner with violence, in Chinook.
>
> --Dave R.
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately
> to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
>
>
>

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!