TRANSLATION OF BIBLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 73, 15 January 1947, Page 6

TRANSLATION OF BIBLE

ESKIMO’S EPIC TASK EARNEST STUDENT OF ENGLISH Translation of the Bible into the language of the Inupiat Eskimos is the epic task for which Roy Ahmaogak, an Eskimo, is preparing, states the Christian Science Monitor. Six thousand miles from his home in Point Barrow, Alaska, Mr Ahmaogak has entered quietly into the campus life of Blomfield College and Seminary. His professors find him an earnest student of English and religion. He is determined to make the Bible the most-read,, most-quoted and most-loved book in the chill regions of the North. As the first step in his life task, Mr Ahmaokag has devised a written Eskimo alphabet. The simple landmark in Eskimo history, and it may point the way to endless enrichment of the lives of his people. Mr Ahmaokag started last spring on his first journey south of the Arctic Circle. Sorrowfully, he bade farewell to his wife, 11 children and 2 grandchildren, and climbed into a naval transport plane bound for Fairbanks, Alaska. sGesUS® "■ O£C' r -r-' ~ T-UP? Days of Wonderment At Fairbanks he saw his first tree. He drank water that did not have to be melted down from ice. Wonderingly, he walked on paved streets ate fresh vegetables, saw his first street crowds.

From Fairbanks he travelled to a School of Linguistics at Norman, Oklahoma. There, with the help of interested American faculty members he devised the Eskimo alphabet.

A quiet little man who favours pin-striped suits and triple-sized chocolate sundaes, Mr Ahmaogak is now boarding in a men’s dormitory with students younger than most of his five sons.

His life is simple. Several times each week he walks along Bloomfield Avenue to nearby Montclair to watch street crowds, still a great novelty and source of interest. As a youth he used to trap bears in the trackless Alaskan wastes. Now, he says he dares not go off Bloomfield Avenue for fear of becoming lost. He is baffled by automobiles, the OPA, and other products of civilisation, but manages to remain undisturbed by the “meat crisis.” At home his daily diet comprises coffee, mush and toast for breakfast; caribou or seal meat, rice and bread for lunch; potatoes, canned vegetables and sometimes pie for dinner.

Plenty of Daily Duties

In Alaska, Mr Ahmaogak serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Mission Station. He has also worked as interpreter, lay worker, and substitute minister. His enrolment at Bloomfield College and Seminary was arranged by the Board of National Missions, Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Wistfully, Mr Ahmaogak describes the life he will return to next fall: transport over land by sledge, even when there is no snow on the ground; houses made .entirely of driftwood, and sub-zero temperatures day after day for most of the year.

He longs for the sound of nails cracking in driftwood walls when the temperature is 40 below. He describes the daily chore of melting ice to make water as one might talk about the old oaken bucket.

He pulls from an inner pocket a frayed envelope of photographs picturing Eskimo dogs, sledges and members of his large family. Three smilirtg daughters seated on a sledge, snugly clothed in fur parkas, snow-shirts and heavy boots, appear well insulated against bitter Arctic weather. Another favourite photograph shows the game of “nalukatok” (Inupiat Eskimo for getting tossed into the air in a walrus skin). Right now, however, these are far-away pictures. His concern for the next year is thorough preparation for his life task of bringing the Bible, the world's greatest literature, within reach of the Eskieuw.