498 FOOD. DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING WATEK. 



upon a part of which the head was laid, and the rest was 

 strewed before the chief. He then cut large pieces off the 

 cheeks, and laid these within the reach of the great man, who 

 swallowed them with as much satisfaction as we should do 

 raw oysters. When he had done, the remains of the head 

 were cut in pieces, and given to the attendants, who tore off 

 the meat with their teeth, and gnawed the bones like so many 

 dogs." 



A feast among some of the more civilized Esquimaux of 

 Greenland is thus described by Crantz:* "A factor being 

 invited to a great entertainment with several topping Green- 

 landers, counted the following dishes : 1. Dried herrings. 2. 

 Dried seal's flesh. 3. Boiled ditto. 4. Half-raw and rotten 

 ditto, called Mikiak. 5. Boiled willocks. 6. A piece of a half- 

 rotten whale's tail : this was the dainty dish or haunch of 

 venison to which the guests were properly invited. 7. Dried 

 salmon. 8. Dried reindeer venison. 9. A dessert of crow- 

 berries mixed with the chyle out of the maw of a reindeer. 

 10. The same, enriched with train oil." 



Their drink consists of blood or water : during the greater 

 part of the year they have considerable difficulty in obtaining 

 sufficient water to satisfy their thirst, and it is much too pre- 

 cious to be used for washing. It may seem surprising that 

 people who are surrounded by snow and ice should suffer 

 from want of water, but the amount of heat required to melt 

 snow is so great, that a man without the means of obtaining 

 fire might die of thirst in these Arctic regions as easily as in 

 the sandy deserts of Africa. Any direct "resort to snow," 

 says Kane, " for the purpose of allaying thirst, was followed 

 by bloody lips and tongue; it burnt like caustic."^ When 

 the Esquimaux visited Captain Parry, they were always 

 anxious for water, which they drank in such quantities " that 



* History of Greenland, vol. i. t Arctic Explorations, vol. i. 



p. 172. p. 190. 



