Dialogue between Pooq and his countrymen

The text of the little book about Pooq contains two dialogues that were of great interest to Inuit in Greenland when the book appeared in 1857. 

Berthelsen and Møller, who compiled the book, found the dialogues in the appendix to a book almost 100 years old, a grammar of Greenlandic compiled by Hans Egede’s son, Poul (or Paul).

Entitled Grammatica Grönlandica-Danico-Latina, it was published in Copenhagen in 1760. The dialogues appear in all three languages. 

The English translations I am using were created by Louise Hope. They are used with her permission. I have done some editing.

Egede probably created the dialogues from stories still extant in Nuuk when he lived there. In the first, he described his experiences in Denmark in a dialogue between Pooq and four men.

“Pooq and Qiperoq travelling through Copenhagen in a carriage” is a woodcut by Rasmus Berthelsen in the book “Pok, kalalek avalangnek, nunalikame nunakatiminut okaluktuartok. Angakordlo palasimik napitsivdlune agssortuissok Nuuk, 1857.” In my copy of the book, this woodcut is not coloured. The hand-coloured copy shown here is from the Royal Library in Copenhagen. (Image courtesy of The Royal Library in Copenhagen)

Pooq: After missing you all for a long time, I see you again.

Simik: You were not afraid to travel over the great sea.

Pooq: I found that the sea is vast. We saw no land for two months.

Kyaut: Now you have seen the country of the kabloonas. Where is your comrade?

Pooq: He died in the spring, in the land of the long beards [Norway].

Kyaut: You have much to tell.

Pooq: I am bewildered in my story because I have so many things to tell.

Kyaut: Haven’t you been in the country of the king, the supreme master?

Pooq: Yes. We went by sea from Norway, set our course for the south, and arrived in the King’s land on the third day.

Kyaut: Amazing.

Pooq: The king’s house and the churches are raised above all others. Their height cannot be reached with an arrow shot.

Persok: No doubt you have been inside them. Maybe you have also viewed the king’s house.

Pooq: Certainly. When we moored outside the city, I and my deceased comrade were fetched with a boat of 14 oars, beautifully painted, but since we wanted to row beside them in our kayaks, we rowed ourselves. But what a crowd of spectators by the shore! There were as many as mosquitoes.

Persok: Were you not frightened at all?

Pooq: No. They brought us to a sleigh with a house on it that had windows on both sides, because we were both going to the great king.

Persok: He has a big house, no doubt.

Pooq: It is like an iceberg, all white, roofed with copper. The entrance was so large that 20 tents could be set up. On both sides were many well-dressed armed people.

 Persok: Tell more. It is pleasant to hear.

Pooq: Inside this big amazing house are many large, beautifully painted and gleaming rooms.

Persok: They are not like our dirty sod houses.

 Pooq: Eventually we came to a big room which was full of great lords, who all became small when their master came in. They bowed down almost to the ground, and so did I … The king asked me if I understood Danish – that is the name of their language – and I answered Ney, which was the only word I knew.

Pooq: (continues): So I asked Jappe Jentoft [the interpreter] to say to the great lord: That I thanked him on my countrymen’s behalf for his great kindness in sending us teachers to instruct us about God and so on. The king answered that he would be very pleased if they would learn to know God … I received many valuable gifts from the great lord, and also from the others, so I have five large chests full. Noblemen are generally decent and agreeable.

Simik: We were wrong in thinking that our people were the only ones with good character.

Pooq: We and our people are moderately good and moderately evil. But the kabloonas have no equal, whether in good or in evil.

Simik: I believe this is true. Tell more … Where do all these people get food? Twenty whales a day would not be enough for them.

Pooq: They get most of their food from the land, which the lowly people work each summer. They sew seed, which grows up in great quantities … The trees are full of all kinds of berries or fruits, which are very tasty.

Tulluak: It would be good to live in that land.

Pooq: We couldn’t live there, for there were few seals and no whales … There is no free hunting and fishing as with us. The great lords own all the wild animals and all the fish in the seas. Only tame animals can be owned … There are only a few who care to come here. If it were not for whale oil and fat, nobody would see our land.

Tulluak: What do they use the whale oil for?

Pooq: For lamps that hang outside their houses at night, to shine for passers-by.

Tulluak: They are very clever.

Pooq: Their authorities have great care for the common people. There is a big house full of old men and women who are supported for nothing. One house only for orphans. One for crazy people.

One for bad women who have to work against their will. And two or three for other poor people.

Pooq: Some are cripples and can’t work. Others are lazy and don’t feel like it and still others ruin themselves to get crazy-making water [liquor].

Tulluak: Is it the kind that the sailors get crazy from?

Pooq: Yes. There are many houses whose masters have no other business than to sell crazy- making water. There they drink, shout, scream, fight and have no sense.

Tulluak: But you said there was only one house for crazy people.

Pooq: Those people go to all extremes. But with the kabloonas many are so crazy that they have to be tied and locked up and stay that way all their lives. Others pay money to become crazy for a short time. On the other hand there are some very wise people. They can find their way through the wide open sea by only measuring the sun’s height, and by always looking at the moving thing that steadily points to the north [a compass].

They can predict when eclipses will happen, and how big. In short, I have seen so much of their wondrous deeds that I became speechless, and had to admit the truth of our forefathers saying: kabloonas can control everything except the ebb and flow of the tides.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for more than 50 years. He is the author of “Minik: The New York Eskimo” and “Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.