More humor in Chinuk Wawa: A wakeup call
From the Chinook paper, but in French, here’s another amusing story.
I haven’t yet figured out who “Chief Etienne” was, but he must have been born around the time of his people’s first contact with non-Natives.
Image credit: Experience Nicola Valley
In this anecdote, Father JMR Le Jeune is recalling 1882, when he’d just arrived at Kamloops for the first time; a few weeks later, he makes his first visit southward to the Native people in the Nicola Valley.
He and the Monsignor are worn out, and they make a request to be allowed to sleep in a little the next morning…
(Kamloops Wawa #254 (September 1915), pages 61-62.)
Malgre toute ma bonne volonte, je dis a Monseigneur que je ne pouvais plus y tenir. -Moi aussi je suis fatigue, me dit-il. Attendez, nous allons arranger cela…Alors Mgr commande la silence: -“Ecoutez, dit-il, demain matin je veux que personne ne touche a la cloche; je la sonnerai moi-meme quand je serai pret. Tout le monde s’en fut coucher. Nous avions une chambre adjoignante a la salle des reunions, avec deux lits. -Au moins nous allons avoir une bonne nuit! dit Mgr… Je ne tardais pas a m’endormir, et a un bon sommeil…///A cinq heures du matin, voila que la cloche sonne a toutes volees… -N’y faites pas attention dit Mgr… A cinque heures et demie, la cloche sonne de nouveau… enfin on se leve. A six heu[res] nous arrivons a l’eglise: tout le monde y etait: quelques-uns nous regardent venir… On dit les prieres et les messes, et le sermon… On sort de l’eglise.. “Qui a sonne la cloche? Personne ne sait. Quand tout le monde a passe, le vieux chef Etienne, age de plus de 80 ans, accosta Mgr et lui dit: “Je suis plus vieux que toi, mais je suis plus matinal…” C’est lui qui a sonne la cloche. Le soir, pendant la reunion, il etait couche dans un coin sur une natte et il dormait comme un bien heureux!
‘Despite all my good will, I told Monsignor that I couldn’t stand it any longer. “I’m tired too,” he told me. Wait, we’ll fix it… So the Bishop orders silence: – “Listen, he said, tomorrow morning I don’t want anyone to touch the bell; I’ll ring it myself when I’m ready.” We went to sleep. We had a bedroom adjoining the meeting room, with two beds. – At least we are going to have a good night! said Mgr…. I was soon falling asleep, and had a good sleep…
At five o’clock in the morning, the bell rings all over the place… -Don’t pay attention to it, said Mgr… At five-thirty, the bell rings again… finally we get up. At six o’clock we arrive at the church: everyone was there: some are watching us coming… We say the prayers and the masses, and the sermon… We leave the church.. “Who rang the bell? Nobody knows. When everyone had passed, the old chief Etienne, over 80 years old, accosted Mgr and said to him: “I am older than you, but I am more of an early riser…” It was he who rang the bell. In the evening, during the meeting, he was lying in a corner on a mat and he slept blissfully!’
Well,
