HUNTING THE NARWHAL 365 



strips of skin, and painstakingly covered them. He 

 then walked around the hummock three times, clap- 

 ping his hands and chanting. This done, he returned 

 to the narwhal, removed the remaining eye and ate 

 it, after which he and all of the Eskimos cut and ate 

 small strips of the skin. 



Later I asked Kulutinguah the significance of the 

 ceremony, and he explained to me that this was the 

 first narwhal of the season, and each year when the 

 first narwhal was killed, in order that future success 

 in the hunt be assured, it was necessary for the man 

 that harpooned the narwhal to make an offering of 

 the eye and strips of skin to the spirit which presided 

 over the hunt, and at the same time make an appeal 

 to the spirit to permit the hunter to kill many more 

 before the sun again disappeared and the long night 

 came. 



I never witnessed such a butchering as followed 

 this ceremony, and I never saw men eat such quanti- 

 ties of food as these Eskimos consumed of the un- 

 cooked flesh. The carcass was cut into pieces weigh- 

 ing from fifty to one hundred pounds each, and there 

 was such a quantity of it that the boat would not 

 carry it all in one load. Fortunately the sea was 

 calm, for we were loaded to the gunwales when we 

 began a hard, tedious pull to camp. 



Long before we reached Annootok the Eskimos 

 began shouting and signaling with their oars to those 

 on shore, announcing our success. All the women 

 and children, in a state of frenzied excitement, gath- 

 ered at the landing to greet us as we drew near, and 



