330 



of the lamp, from which it is taken later between the thumb 

 and forefinger and strewn over the places, where the flame re- 

 quires brightening. With the lamp-stick, which as a rule is 

 an unprepared piece of bone or wood, the lamp-moss soaked 

 with the blubber is arranged in a series of pointed tufts. Then 

 these or at least some of them are lighted at the top and 

 allowed to burn for a while ; the lamp-stick is now used to bring 

 them all into connection, and the tufts still not lit are added, 

 so that a long flame is obtained which burns at the back of a 

 low wall of moss (a cross-section of this with the flame is 

 shown to the left in the lamp on fig. 21). The magnitude of 

 the flame thus depends on how long the moss-wall is made 



У///////////////7У/У Ш//////////////Г//7///////////// 



Fig. 21. 



Diagrammatic longitudinal section through a blubber-lamp, standing on the 



stones of a side-platform, a is the flame above the moss- wall (wick); 6 the 



melted blubber; с unmelted blubber; de is the leather-bowl to catch the 



dripping blubber. 



and further, on whether much heat is required for cooking or 

 warming or whether the room has simply to be lighted up 

 somewhat. In the former case, the flame may extend over at 

 least ^/4ths of the one side of the lamp, whereas in the latter 

 case it only requires to be a few cm. The size of the lamp 

 itself is extremely variable; the breadth of a cooking-lamp be- 

 tween its two pointed corners may be normally from 30 to 

 70 cm. While the lamp is burning, it must be constantly 

 attended to; with the stick the woman works along the moss- 

 wall smoothing and making it regular, so that the flame should 

 burn clear and evenly without smoking. This apparently so 

 simple treatment is in reality very difficult and requires so 

 much skill, experience and care, that none but an Eskimo 



