1885, WA: German-Chinook oaths!
Of course you know “Dutch” always meant “German” in America back then.
Here’s a nice anecdote from, I reckon, right around the corner from the newspaper office.
Blogger’s conception of Old Nick (image credit: The Guardian)
The German fella probably really was named Nick, although “Old Nick” is The Devil in English-language slang.
Here we get some nice untranslated Chinook Jargon, plus further confirmation of the cooccurrence of Chinook ‘n’ cussin’.
The Old Nick After Them.
One morning this week, a dealer in
sausages, &c., whose place of business is
not a thousand miles from the Commer-
cial, thought to enjoy a late snooze and
let the other boys attend to business a
little while, but a partner was in the way
who tried in vain to get him up, only suc-
ceeding in making him cross. Presently
two maidens of the forest, decked out in
buckskin and old table cloths, made their
appearance, causing a happy thought to
strike the partner full in the face and he
urged a friend to send the squaws to
awaken the slumberer. The bed of the
unconscious victim was on a sort of a
hanging shelf in the rear of the building,
reached by a ladder, and, upon a proper
statement being made, to the effect that
the “moo-sum” man was sick, she remark- [sleeping]
ed that his “tilakum” had a bad “tum- [friend…heart]
tum” to not help the “Boston man,” but [White guy]
that her “tumtum” was “skookum” and [heart…strong]
she would “mamook elahan” to get well. [help out]
With a scornful look at the “kultus tila- [no-good friend]
kum,” she ascended the ladder on a mis-
sion of mercy intent, but just as her
raven head and oily countenance was in
range of the sleepy brother’s vision, a
volley of Dutch-Chinook oaths were fired
at her, together with boots, boot-jack, old
hats, and a perfect roar of “Gott-in-Him-
mel-damn-your-old-cultus-kow-of-rags- [worthless bundle]
and-filth, I’ll kok-shut your latate if you [break…head]
don’t klatawa before I get to you, you [get out]
gut-fur-nicht-nitz,” and the poor maiden
of the forest and daughter of a chief got
out of there. So did the fellows who put
up the job. They thought the Old Nick
was after them, and he was.
— from the Dayton (WA) Columbia Twice-a-Week Chronicle of May 2, 1885, page 2, column 4
