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in the boat. As the whale (bowhead) is too heavy to be thus 

 disposed of, it is cut up in the water, but its eye (the one appearing 

 out of the water) is sHt, so that it may not see the operation. 

 Probably there is the idea involved here that it is distasteful to 

 the inua (genius) of the animal to have its body disposed of out 

 of its native element or amid strange surroundings. There is 

 a trace of the same idea in Labrador, where they slit the eyes 

 of the seal. 



There appears to be a specialization in Labrador of the 

 general food taboo in that walrus and seal meat must not be mixed 

 any more than deer meat and seal meat. Whale meat is also 

 kept strictly separate from deer meat, and the instruments used 

 in cutting up the whale must be bound with seal thongs rather 

 than sinew. Torngarsoak, the chief deity of the Labrador 

 Eskimo, is offended if any instrument suggesting the deer is 

 employed on the whale. 



HUNTING SMALL GAME. 



The taking of small game, as wolves, foxes, hares, ptarmigan, 

 and waterfowl, is done with the aid of a variety of ingenious 

 traps and nooses. 



The old natives say that wolves were formerly quite numer- 

 ous in the Labrador interior. They followed the great bands of 

 migrating reindeer, on which they fed. In winter they approach- 

 ed the coast and rifled traps and tore down meat caches, and even 

 attacked the dogs in the villages. Dogs were useless as a 

 defence against the marauders, for, although a team of Eskimo 

 dogs will hold a huge polar bear at bay, they will not attack 

 a wolf. 



Traps. 



When the wolves become too bold and annoying, the 

 Labrador Eskimo employ a little device, also used by the Point 

 Barrow Eskimo, which effectually thins their numbers. A 

 sharp, slender strip of whalebone is tied up in folds with a small 

 sinew and placed inside a chunk of blubber. It is thrown out at 

 night, when the wolves prowl around the villages, and quickly 



