THE INDIANS 211 



So long as continue the migrations, the old-time ways will 

 prevail. 



The cooking of fresh material is done most usually by 

 boiling, the most economical method, and the one which, 

 preserving all the elements of the material in hand, wearies 

 least upon the taste. 



In the caribou country, the preferred way of saving meat 

 is by smoking and converting into pemmican. For this 

 the meat is smoked rather brittle, pounded into powder 

 and shreds upon a stone, and put into a bag or bladder. 

 Melted fat is then poured in ; when the covering is stripped 

 off, the pemmican looks like a lump of tallow, but an in- 

 cision with the thumb nail exposes the meat. 



In the high, cool barrens, whole carcasses, skinned and 

 cleaned, are left on the gravel-beaches to dry black in the 

 sun and wind. Sometimes many hundreds of carcasses 

 thus exposed may be seen along the beaches at the spearing 

 places. 



The art of making pemmican is practised also by certain 

 Africans and other primitive peoples, and the grease is 

 sometimes replaced by honey or some similar preservative. 



If it is not surprising that so convenient a means of deal- 

 ing with the food-supply should be found in various parts 

 of the world, there is nevertheless a deer product in northern 

 use which might more naturally be presumed as of only 

 local use. This is the uinastikai of the caribou country; 

 into the paunch of the caribou is put the blood, a little of 

 the partly digested moss is left in, and the whole is cooked 

 and dried, when it may be crumbled into grains like brown- 

 ish gunpowder. It does not seem to be regarded as a 

 delicacy, being, it would appear, more valued than liked, 



