10G 



TIIK POINT HAKKOW ESKIMO. 



there were three lamps, the third standing in the right-hand front cor 

 ner of the house. The dish is filled with oil, whieh is burned by means 

 of a wick of moss fibers arranged along the outer edge. Large lamps 

 are usually divided into three compartments, of which the middle is the 

 largest, by wooden partitions called sii potln (corresponding to the 

 Greenlandic saputit, &quot;(1) a dam across a stream for catching fish, (2) a 

 dam or dike in general&quot;), along which wicks can also be arranged. The 

 women tend the lamps with great care, trimming and arranging the 

 wick with little sticks. The lamp burns with scarcely any smoke and a 



FIG. 47. Stonu house lamp. 



bright flame, the size of which is regulated by kindling more or less of 

 the wick, and is usually kept tilled by the drip from a lump of blubber 

 stuck on a sharp stick (ajiVksuxbwin) projecting from the wall about a 

 foot above the middle of the lamp. 1 



In most houses there is a long slender stick (knkun, u a lighter&quot;), 

 which the man of the house uses to light his pipe with when sitting on 

 the banquette, without the trouble of getting down, by dipping the end 

 in the oil of the lamp and lighting this at the flame. The sticks used 

 for trimming the wick also serve as pipe-lighters and for carrying fire 

 across the room in the, same way. 2 No food, except an occasional 



1 Compare the custom noticed by Parry, at Iglulik, of hanging a long thin strip of blubber near the 



of the lamp to feed it (2il Voyage, p. 502). According to Petitot (Monographic, 

 lamps iu t lie Mackenzie district are fed by ;t lump of blubber st uek on a stick, as at 1 

 2 Comparo XordenskiiHd, Vega, vol. 2, p. 119: &quot;The wooden pins she* uses to triii 



are, used when required :is a. light or torch 



to light pipes, etc. In the sain 



tc., p. xviih, the 

 &amp;gt;int Harrow, 

 the wick . . . 

 way other pins 

 pins, fUso oblong 



dipped in train oil are used&quot; (Pitlckaj), and foot note on same page: &quot;I have seen sue 

 stones, sooty at one end, which, after having hern dipped in train-oil, have, been used as torches, 

 in old Kskimo graves in northwestern Greenland.&quot; 



