DISGUSTING PROPENSITIES. 53 



build a hut with great celerity, having all the 

 materials at hand. They drive a number of 

 stakes into the ground in a quadrangular form, 

 fill the interstices with thin planks, and roof in 

 the whole with the bark of trees. With such a 

 dwelling they are satisfied ; in the severest winter 

 the family sit in a circle, carrying on their seve- 

 ral employments round a fire in the centre. The 

 interior displays as much filthiness as if the in- 

 habitants belonged to the dirtiest class of the 

 brute creation. The smoke ; the stench of bad 

 fish, and blubber ; the repulsive figures of the 

 women, disgustingly occupied in seeking for ver- 

 min on the heads or skins of the men, and actu- 

 ally eating them when found ; the great utensil 

 for the service of the whole family, which is also 

 the only vessel capable of containing water to 

 wash with ; all this soon drives the most inqui- 

 sitive European out of so detestable a den. 



Their food, sufficiently disgusting in itself, is 

 rendered still more so by their manner of eating. 

 It consists almost exclusively of fish, of which 

 the whale is the chief favourite, and its blubber 

 an especial dainty. This is sometimes cooked 

 upon red-hot stones, but more commonly eaten 



