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!