29 



mu'fi'ilu-t, "egg-month" (from mn'n-ik "egg"), June. 



kittiyi'alirt, "mosquito-month" (horn kituyi'oq "mosquito"), 

 July. 



pu'7ja"lu't, "berry-month" (from pwnaq "berry," piiya 

 Lab.), August. 



qono"lrlu-t, "fading-month" (from qonoli't "fade"), i.e., 

 the month when the leaves and mosses fade in colour, September. 



sikua"lu-t, "the month when ice forms around the shore" 

 (from sikua'q "thin ice, young ice"). 



nu-nali'alu't, "inland month," i.e., the month that they go 

 into the interior for deer (from nunali'aq "the interior country"). 



NAMES OF STARS. 



The Labrador Eskimo do not note the appearance of the 

 stars for any yearly calculations of time, but use them as a guide 

 in travelling, and recognize several of the larger constellations 

 by name. The North Star is known as nv'krtewituk, "the star 

 that moves not"; the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) appears to them 

 as a reindeer, and is called the Reindeer Star, /w•yfe/M•)'z^'^; the 

 Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) is named from its shape, the Short 

 Ribs, sage't-cet; the Morning Star is qaucut, from qaw, forehead, 

 i.e., the front or forerunner of day; the Evening Star is wna-cwt, 

 from wnif'ak, night, i.e., the forerunner of night. Orion is 

 known as ka'tnuti'qdjuaq, the sledge (?). 



FOOD. 



Under the hard conditions of his environment provision for 

 food becomes one of the most important questions affecting the 

 Eskimo. But nature, which has been so niggardly in assigning 

 him to a cheerless climate, appears to have partly made up for 

 it in supplying a fairly abundant supply of game, both on sea 

 and land, and, as a relish, a quantity of wild herbs and berries. 

 The abundant floral life which springs out of the earth in Arctic 

 regions as soon as the snow is gone is really amazing, and lends, 

 for a brief period, a cheerful aspect to the otherwise dreary 

 landscape. 



The chief food of the Eskimo in Labrador, as elsewhere, is 

 the common seal (ne'iceq), Pagomys foetidus. It is found near 



