eskimos 145 
the flame increases the wick requires considerable manipulation 
so that the flame may burn evenly around the lamp and not 
cause smoke. 
The more remote Eskimos suspend an oblong kettle of soap- 
stone over the flame to melt ice and cook food, but most of the 
natives, having access to traders, have largely given up the use 
of the stone kettle and use tin ones in its place. 
Cooked food, with its accompanying broths, is preferred to 
raw, but the Eskimos are not averse to raw meat, especially 
liver, the fat portions of the deer and all fish during the winter. 
While the Women are arranging the interior of the snow- 
house, the men are busy unharnessing the dogs, feeding them 
with large lumps of seal or other meat, or with fish, which the 
dogs devour ravenously after their twenty-four hours' fast. The 
harness and other things liable to be eaten by the dogs are either 
hung out of reach or taken into the house. If the night is 
stormy a couple of blocks of snow are put to windward of the 
hole from which they are taken, thus making a shelter for each 
dog. Many of the dogs disdain such shelter, and on the coldest 
stormy nights lie curled upon the highest place available, evi- 
dently preferring the cold to being drifted under by the snow 
in the holes prepared for them. The Eskimo, as a rule, is very 
considerate to his dogs, and only treats them violently at rare 
intervals. Then he uses the long heavy dog-whip to some pur- 
pose, and the dogs retain for all time the remembrance of it. 
When more than one family live in a house, each has its inde- 
pendent lamp, and the family cooking is kept separate. Seals 
and other food are, to some extent, common property; that is, 
if an Eskimo kills an animal when alone, he divides it amongst 
his neighbours, who return the compliment. When hunting in 
company the customs vary with the animal killed and with the 
tribes; there is a great deal of etiquette observed, and as a rule 
each member of the party is entitled to some portion of the 
carcass. 
14 
