1889: Upside down in the salt chuck
Who was the “celebrity” on board the canoe?
(Image credit: Art of Manliness)
Anyhow, we have a nice Jargon expression for ‘upside-down’ in this article:
In conclusion we beg to note a rather unpleasant occurrence to one of our pioneer settlers while crossing Burgoyne Bay only yesterday. Of course there was within that water conveyance a celebrity who, sad to relate, was a sharer of the misfortune. It appears that the water being rather unbridled and the first getting wearied desired to rest his oars, but while so doing the canino ucut [canoe went] keikaly sarkily kopa salt chuck, and alas! turning bottom upright gave a free immersion to both. One managed to swim ashore, but the old man went straight down and again rising clutched the upturned canoe and held thereto until the tide washed him to shore. None of his clothes bore the slightest resemblance to dry ones. When afterwards wending his way homewards, sympathy was tendered, yet he affirmed he didn’t care so long as he was not drowned. “All’s well that ends well.”
— from the Victoria (BC) Daily Times of November 21, 1889, page 1, column 6
Keikaly sarkily kopa salt chuck = kíkwəli-sáx̣ali kʰupa sáltsəqw = ‘down-up in saltwater’ = ‘capsized in the sea’.
Previously, from published dictionaries, we had only known of saying k’ílapay for ‘upside-down’ and/or ‘capsize(d)’.
But the 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary tells us that kíkwəli-sáx̣ali is reported in St Onge’s unpublished lexicon…
So today we have confirmation of that single old source!
Sounds almost like a literal equivalent of ‘bottom up’ .. for ‘upside-down’.
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