COOKERY. FOOD. 497 



hot enough, and the food is cooked. Of course, the result is 

 a mess of soot, dirt, and ashes, which would, according to our 

 ideas, be almost intolerable ; but if the stench of their houses 

 does not take away a man's appetite, nothing else would be 

 likely to do so. They never wash their pots or kettles ; the 

 dogs save them this trouble. Those who have arrived at a 

 dim consciousness of their dirtiness, do generally but make 

 matters worse, for if they wish to treat a guest " genteelly, 

 they first lick the piece of meat he is to eat clean from the 

 blood and scum it has contracted in the kettle, with their 

 tongue ; and should any one not kindly accept it, he would be 

 looked upon as an unmannerly man for despising their civil- 

 ity."* The Esquimaux observed by Dr. Eae at Eepulse Bay 

 were, however, much cleaner in their habits. 



Their food consists principally of reindeer, musk ox, walrus, 

 seals, birds, and salmon. They will, however, eat any kind 

 of animal food. They are very fond of fat and marrow, to 

 get at which they pound the bones with a stone. The southern 

 tribes get a few berries in summer, but those who live in the 

 north have scarcely any vegetable food except that which they 

 obtain in a half-digested form from the stomach of the rein- 



o 



deer, and this they regard as a great delicacy ;( the northern- 

 most of all, being unable to kill reindeer, are entirely deprived 

 of vegetable food. 



" I was once present," says Captain Cook,J: "when the chief 

 of Oonalashka made his dinner of the raw head of a large 

 halibut, just caught. Before any was given to the chief, two 

 of his servants ate the gills, without any other dressing besides 

 squeezing out the slime. This done, one of them cut off the 

 head of the fish, took it to the sea and washed it, then came 

 with it and sat down by the chief: first pulling up some grass, 



* Crantz, p. 168 ; Parry, Second t Ross, Narrative, of a Second 

 Voyage, p. 293 ; Lyon's Journal, Voyage, p. 352. 

 p. 142. t Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 511. 



9 v- 



