ESKIMOS 145 



tLe flame increases the wick requires considerable manipulation 

 so that the flame may burn evenly around the lamp and not 

 cause smoke. 



The more remote Eskimos suspend an oblong kettle of soap- 

 stone over the flame to melt ice and cook food, but most of the 

 natives, having access to traders, have largely given up the use 

 of the stone kettle and use tin ones in its place. 



Cooked food, with its accompanying broths, is preferred to 

 raw, but the Eskimos are not averse to raw meat, especially 

 liver, the fat portions of the deer and all fish during the winter. 



While the women are arranging the interior of the snow- 

 house, the men are busy unharnessing Jhe dogs, feeding them 

 with large lumps of seal or other meat, or with fish, which the 

 dogs devour ravenously after their twenty-four hours' fast. The 

 harness and other things liable to be eaten by the dogs are either 

 hung out of reach or taken into the house. If the night is 

 stormy a couple of blocks of snow are put to windward of the 

 hole from which they are taken, thus making a shelter for each 

 dog. Many of the dogs disdain such shelter, and on the coldest 

 stormy nights lie curled upon the highest place available, evi- 

 dently preferring the cold to being drifted under by the snow 

 in the holes prepared for them. The Eskimo, as a rule, is very 

 considerate to his dogs, and only treats them violently at rare 

 intervals. Then he uses the long heavy dog-whip to some pur- 

 pose, and the dogs retain for all time the remembrance of it. 



When more than one family live in a house, each has its inde- 

 pendent lamp, and the family cooking is kept separate. Seals 

 and other food are, to some extent, common property ; that is, 

 if an Eskimo kills an animal when alone, he divides it amongst 

 his neighbours, who return the compliment. When hunting in 

 company the customs vary with the animal killed and with the 

 tribes ; there is a great deal of etiquette observed, and as a rule 

 each member of the party is entitled to some portion of the 



carcass. 



14 



