PREPARING FOR ARCTIC DAY 223 



fellow and his kooner, Tiney go. They had been 

 very kind to me indeed. Their going began the 

 final breaking up of our winter camp, with its many 

 pleasant associations, and I realized how lonely and 

 how very desolate a place Annootok would be when 

 all the igloos were abandoned. 



After a rest of fourteen hours I visited all of the 

 igloos, and while there, just as the twilight was grow- 

 ing dim, Kulutinguah, Oxpuddyshou and Awhella 

 came in, each with a large seal which they had killed 

 a little to the northward. They hauled them into the 

 igloos, and I witnessed the process of butchering and 

 feasting that followed. There was nothing unusual 

 about the butchery, except that the blood was saved 

 and drunk in quantities by the people themselves, 

 instead of being fed to the dogs. Then they gorged 

 themselves on the raw, bloody meat and blubber. 

 Even little youngsters, some of them not over three 

 years of age, chewed the dripping meat and blubber, 

 and soon every one of them was so covered with blood 

 that they looked as though wholesale murder had been 

 committed. 



In connection with this I might mention a super- 

 stition among these people which forbids an Eskimo 

 to eat hare until he has killed his first bear. On sev- 

 eral occasions I offered hare meat to children. In- 

 variably they asked me if it was okoody [hare], and 

 when they learned that it was, passed it back to me 

 without tasting it. Similar superstitions prevail as 

 to ducks' eggs and deer's meat. With the length- 

 ening twilight we were able to hunt hare again with 



