FEEDING THE SICK FOLKS 



I made the acquaintance of this remarkable item on 

 the Eskimo menu when I was visiting in one of the 

 houses on the hill. The people were grouped round 

 a wooden tub which contained a pile of grey and 

 slimy somethings ; the smell that arose from the tub 

 was subtle and evil. 



" What have you got ? " I asked them ; and the 

 head man of the household answered with the 

 Eskimo word for " rotten." 



He held a flipper up for me to see, and shook his 

 head with a smile as he said " You could not eat that ; 

 it would make you ill." 



" Ahaila," said another man in the circle, " only 

 strong people can eat rotten flippers. No good for 

 sick people. Illale, but we like them, and they do 

 us good, but the people in the south have forgotten 

 how to eat rotten flippers, and their stomachs have 

 grown too weak. Mammadlarpulle (but they taste 

 good)." How long those flippers had been soaking 

 in that tub I did not find out, but they were assuredly 

 gamey. 



And the man spoke a truth; the northern 

 Eskimos are far more primitive in their food than 

 are the southerners; and yet, all along the coast, 

 they still keep to the staple diet of raw meat that 

 earned for them in olden times the epithet " Eskimo 

 eater of raw flesh " which, as the story goes, the 

 Indians hurled at them in derision. And without a 

 ! doubt the raw foods suit their peculiar constitution 

 the best. 



I found that the people refuse food so long as 



: they feel acutely ill : their one cry is " Immilanga, 



immilanga (water, water)." As a consequence they 



waste away at an extraordinary rate; and after a 



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