A small sweep, passed through a ring at the stern,
served as a rudder, by far the best steering gear for the
"sturgeons," but not for a York boat, which is built with a
keel and can sail pretty close to the wind. Ordinarily the
only sail in use is a lug, which has a great spread, and moves
a boat quickly in a fair wind. In a calm, of course, sweeps have
to be used, and our first step in departure was to cross the
river with them, the boatmen rising with the oars and falling
back simultaneously to their seats with perfect precision, and
handling the great blades with practised ease. When the opposite
shore was reached, the four trackers of each boat leaped into
the water, and, splashing up the bank, got into harness at
once, and began, with changes to the oars, the unflagging pull
which lasted for two weeks. This harness is called by the
trackers "otapan??pi"--a Cree word--and it must be borne in mind
that scarcely any language was spoken throughout this region other
than Cree. A little English or French was occasionally heard; but
the tongue, domestic, diplomatic, universal, was Cree, into which
every half-breed in common talk lapsed, sooner or later, with
undisguised delight. It was his mother tongue, copious enough
to express his every thought and emotion, and its soft accents,
particularly in the mouth of woman, are certainly very musical.
Emerson's phrase, "fossil poetry," might be applied to our Indian
languages, in which a single stretched-out word does duty for
a sentence.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43