MURDOCH.] POOD. 63 



glad to purchase from us corn-meal &quot;mush&quot; and the broken victuals from 

 the table. These were, however, considered as special dainties and 

 eaten as luncheons or as a dessert after the regular meal. The children 

 and even some of the women were always on the watch for the cook s 

 slop bucket to be brought out, and vied with the ubiquitous dogs in 

 searching for scraps of food. Meat which epicures would call rather 

 &quot;high&quot; is eaten with relish, but they seem to prefer fresh meat when 

 they can get it. 



Means of preparing food. Food is generally cooked, except, perhaps, 

 whale-skin and whale-gum, which usually seem to be eaten as soon as 

 obtained, without waiting for a fire. Meat of all kinds is generally 

 boiled in abundance of water over a fire of driftwood, and the broth 

 thus made is drunk hot before eating the meat. Fowls are prepared for 

 boiling by skinning them. Fish are also boiled, but are often eaten raw, 

 especially in winter at the deer-hunting camps, when they are frozen 

 hard. Meat is sometimes eaten raw or frozen. Lieut. Kay found one 

 family in camp on Kulugrua who had no fire of any kind, and were 

 eating everything raw. They had run out of oil some time before and 

 did not like to spend time in going to the coast for more while deer were 

 plentiful. 



When traveling in winter, according to Lieut. Ray, they prefer frozen 

 fish or a sort of pemmican made as follows : The marrow is extracted 

 from reindeer bones by boiling, and to a quantity of this is added 2 or 3 

 pounds of crushed seal or whale blubber, and the whole beaten up with 

 the hands in a large wooden bowl to the consistency of frozen cream. 

 Into this they stir bits of boiled venison, generally the poorer portions 

 of the meat scraped off the bone, and chewed up small by all the women 

 and children of the family, &quot;each using some cabalistic word as they 

 cast in their mouthful.&quot; 1 The mass is made up into 2-pound balls and 

 carried in little sealskin bags. Flour, when obtained, is made into a 

 sort of porridge, of which they are very fond. Cooking is mostly done 

 outside of the dwelling, in the open air in summer, or in kitehens opening 

 out of the passageway in winter. Little messes only, like an occasional 

 dish of soup or porridge, are cooked over the lamps in the house. This 

 habit, of course, conies from the abundant supply of firewood, while the 

 Eskimo most frequently described live in a country where wood is very 

 scarce, and are obliged to depend on oil for fuel. 



Time and frequency of eating. When these people are living in the 

 winter houses they do not, as far as we could learn, have any regular 

 time for meals, but eat whenever they are hungry and have leisure. The 

 women seem to keep a supply of cooked food on hand ready for any 

 one to eat. When the men are working in the ku dylgi.or &quot; club house,&quot; 

 or when a number of them are encamped together in tents, as at the 

 whaling camp in 18S3, or the regular summer camp at IVruyu, the 

 women at intervals through the day prepare dishes of meat, which the 



1 Lieut. Kay s MS. iiotcs. 



