62 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



The average white man doing the same kind of 

 work as an Eskimo under the same conditions will 

 eat about the same amount, grease included. The 

 white man starting on straight meat or fish will not 

 eat as much for the first few days, and does not 

 crave as much. Presumably the human system for 

 some of the elements draws on the reserves stored up 

 in the body. Later, he has to eat much greater 

 quantities of meat or fish to supply the proper 

 amount of those elements which are found in but 

 small amounts m meat and fish. 



The Eskimo is naturally gregarious, and par- 

 ticularly in his eating habits, prefers to practice a 

 limited form of communism. Individuals may lay 

 up food stores, and feel a just pride in having focd 

 in plenty to set before their friends and guests from 

 afar, and a man's social standing is largely de- 

 pendent upon his ability as a hunter and his con- 



one within hearing flocks ever with teacup in hand. 

 Indeed, the watchful and forehanded ones begin to 

 gather as soon as the smoke of the cooking-fire has 

 been ascendmg about the proper length of time. 

 With twenty or thirty persons sitting down in the 

 circle, the average cookmg-pot can only supply a 

 very small "war-time portion " of fish to each person 

 A cup of tea is drunk, a pipe smoked, and the 

 crowds drift away, to spend a short time mending 

 fish-nets, or working at some handiwork before the 

 shout goes up to go somewhere else for another 

 little snack. My experience at this sort of life was 

 that one hardly ever got enough to eat at the meals, 

 and had to splice out with an occasional half-dried 

 fish from the drying-racks or stages. 



The Eskimo of story is often pictured as eating 

 tallow candles and guzzling seal-oil. These stories 

 may be true, but in the course of several years among 



^jm^ 



Eskimo skinniiiK a Eeanlert Seal. Erignathus barliatu.s; Franklin Fay, N.W.T. 



sequent ability to give more. The native "gentle- 

 man of the old school" finds his highest delight in 

 seeing his friends eat at his table, or rather dine on 

 the floor of his iglu or tupek, and in camps where 

 food is abundant life seems to be one continual 

 round of eating. 



Taking Herschel Island in summer as an ex- 

 ample, we find large numbers of families camped on 

 the beach waiting for the trading ships, and in the 

 m.eantime living largely on fish from their nets. The 

 consumption of food in almost continuous commun- 

 istic feasting appears on the face of things to be 

 prodigious. Eating is irregular as to hours, but 

 every housewife is supposed to boil a kettleful of 

 fish, a mess of seal-meat, or a few old-squaws or 

 eider-ducks every few hours, and generally also a 

 pot of tea. When the meal is ready, some member 

 of the family sings out "Niakokseragut !" and every- 



the Eskimos I saw but one Eskimo drink seal-oil, 

 and that was only a small amount after several 

 months on a very short ration of fat. The Eskimo 

 likes to dip a piece of dry lean meat or fish into 

 seal-oil or whale-oil, and pour a little oil over roots 

 or berries. Sometimes he eats a piece of blubber. 

 White men as a rule take their portion of fatty food 

 in other ways. The Eskimo uses little fat in 

 cookery, while the white man fries much of his 

 meat, flapjacks, and eggs, consumes much bacon 

 and butter, uses fat for shortening cakes and pastry, 

 and any housewife knows what an amount of lard- 

 oil of the hog is used in cooking a panful of luscious 

 doughnuts. The Eskimo with his seal-oil on dry- 

 fish or berries, and the civilized man with a taste for 

 butter on bread or rich oily cream of the cow on 

 his strawberries, are both following out the same 

 fundamental principles of human diet. 



