FEEDING THE SICK FOLKS 



seemed to miss in the native cookery done in our 

 hospital kitchen ! 



But, after all, the raw foods suit them best, and 

 they know it. I went into one of the huts during 

 my first week in Okak, to see a young woman who 

 was just recovering from a serious illness. The spec- 

 tacle that greeted me when I opened the door was 

 enough to alarm the bravest: there sat the woman 

 on her bed, a gaunt and white-faced spectre, with 

 her breast bare, and blood dripping from her mouth. 

 I thought some dire catastrophe had happened. 

 " Whatever is the matter ? " I said. For a moment 

 she was silent : she was shy : then she said " My 

 husband has brought me home akkigivik (a par- 

 tridge)," and she lifted her hands to her mouth again, 

 and tore with gusto at the raw, warm flesh of the bird. 



When once their shyness was overcome there was 

 no difficulty about feeding ; some native food or 

 other was always in season, and people were always 

 willing to bring a share of what they had. 



There was genuine sacrifice sacrifice, I mean, 

 with the right motive behind it in those gifts of 

 meat. Men used to come with dishes and pots, 

 containing lumps of raw flesh or samples of native 

 cookery, and hand them over with a shy smile and a 

 laconic "for the sick folks." And, incidentally, it 

 was over a matter of food that my friend Paulus 

 showed me that the people had really grasped the 

 meaning of those bedsteads that had puzzled Veronica. 

 He came one day dangling a leg of reindeer 

 meat, and handed it to me with a little speech. " I 

 know," he said, "that nipko is very good for the 

 sick folks. They like it, and it gives them nukke 

 (sinews). Take this meat, and have it made into 



