1 62 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



squirting it over their hands.^ "On certain rare high days a slight 

 ablution of the face and hands was performed by filling the mouth with 

 water, squirting it out into the hands joined together, and then carrying 

 it to the face", writes F. G. Jackson of the Samoyeds.^ I have repeatedly 

 seen an identical operation performed among the Tsilkotins, Carriers, 

 S^kanais and Babines. 



Then one of the national dishes proper to Asiatics and D6nes alike 

 consists in nothing else than the half digested contents of the reindeer's 

 stomach. Hearne describes it at length as regards the latter,' and Bush 

 is no less explicit when he writes of the natives of Siberia.* 



Another delicacy much esteemed on both continents is the tripes 

 of the hunter's victim. I have repeatedly seen them relished by the 

 Ddn6s, and, in his remarkable work on the Tatars, the parents of the 

 Yakuts, Abb6 Hue shows that the former are not backward in realizing 

 the economic excellence of that part of the animal, which amongst us 

 is scarcely ever thought of when it is a question of human food.^ 



The same author goes on to declare that "tous les Mongols con- 

 naissent le nombre, le nom et la place des os qui entrent dans la char- 

 pente des animaux; aussi quand ils ont d. d^pecer un boeuf ou un mouton, 

 ils ne fracturent jamais les ossements".® This is to the letter true of 

 the D6n6 hunters as well. 



As to the very mode of eating meat, it is also identical on both con- 

 tinents. Bush says of the Tungus: "Each one taking a huge piece of 

 venison put as much of it as he possibly could in his mouth, and then, 

 by a dextrous up-stroke of his knife, shaved it off close to his lips, the 

 edge barely grazing the end of his nose as it severed the meat. I was in 

 constant dread of seeing one of their noses sliced off".^ 



Before I knew of Bush's work I had written of my own Indians: 

 "The true aboriginal way of disposing of [meat] is to approach the 

 roasting spit, bite into the morsel that is cooking, and cut off the mouth- 

 ful with a knife. This eaten, the operation is continued, the native 

 repeatedly biting into the piece of meat and cutting off the mouthful 

 at the risk of carving into his own nose".^ 



* See Bergeron, Relation des Voyages en Tartaric. 



* "The Great Frozen Land", p. 58; London, 1895. 



' "A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort", pp. 317-18. 



* "Reindeer", etc., p. 344. 



* Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartaric, Vol. I, p. 360; Paris, 1853. 



* Ibid., ibid., p. 361. 

 '"Reindeer", etc., p. 281. 



•"The Great Dene Race", vol. I, pp. 157-58 of reprint from Anthropos, Vienna. 



