90 A Dainty Feast. [October, j 864. 



a deposit under a boat, and turning it \\\) by the use of the mast 

 as a lever, the Innuits selected some needed things; among them a 

 keg of blubber, which they presented to him. Their meal on this 

 trip was again made on the skin from the tail of the black whale. 

 Seals were seen, but, following their custom, the Innuits would not 

 now luint them, not having finished their work on the reindeer-skins. 

 Until the walrus season begins, when they may have killed the bear or 

 seal tlie}- only make a deposit of the animal. 



Tlie supply of venison being still abundant, feasting in the village 

 was an every-day affair. When the invitations were general, as on the 

 29th, the feast was held in two connected igloos, in one of which all the 

 women sat, as usual, Turk fashion, on their snow-bench bed, while in the 

 center lay a huge pile of raw frozen venison and tood-noo, reindeer-fat. 

 In tlie other igloo the men crowded close together; the walls of both 

 resounding with peals of laughter, above the confusion of tongues. When 

 they began the feast, a large piece of venison was picked up by one and 

 the edge of it taken between the teeth which answered admirably as a 

 vice to hold it fast, while the knife in the right hand was plied with saw 

 movements near the nose, cutting the meat downward, but with danger 

 to nose and lips. In this way as large a piece of meat was cut off as 

 could be gotten into a widely-distended mouth. The main piece was 

 then passed to the next guest, who followed suit. The tood-noo, in its 

 luni, was served in the same way. The eyes of the reindeer were a 

 delicate morsel. A dish of reindeer heads and necks, boiled with 

 water and a large quantity of reindeer- blood making rich soup, some- 

 times closes the feast. Each guest takes a sup of this in turn until 

 it is gone. The woman of the house then licks the ook-sook (pot), clean 

 and i)repares her own mess. The children are stuffed almost to suffo- 



