DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 105 



its way to his pipe, and the end of that tobacco is not reached until it 

 is wafted away in clouds of smoke. 



An Eskimo who is without tobacco is as wretched as a confirmed 

 drunkard without his whisky, and he will go to as great extremes to 

 secure it as he would to procure food for himself and family. It is the 

 first thing he asks for when a white man approaches him, and the first 

 article he wants to trade for when he has fur to sell. 



Every Eskimo man carries a pipe, and it is the common property of 

 every member of his family, and freely passed around among his friends. 

 It is of a style peculiar to the Eskimo, but resembles in some respects 

 the pipe used by the Chinese, only the bowl is a trifle longer. It is 

 about 10 inches long, slightly curved, and in the bottom near the end 

 which holds the bowl is a slot cut, with a plug made to fit closely, which 

 is removed when enough nicotine and powdered tobacco has accumu- 

 lated to furnish a pinch or two of snuff. The bowl will only hold 

 tobacco enough for a half dozen whiffs, and the smoke is taken into the 

 lungs and exhaled through the nostrils. 



It is thus seen that an Eskimo enjoys all the pleasure there is to be 

 found from the use of tobacco, and, when he is through with it, there 

 is nothing left. Yet after all this is said, it is seldom that one is seen 

 suffering from any evil effects from its use. One whose nerves are all 

 unstrung from the habitual use of tobacco is never seen, and a shat- 

 tered constitution or emaciated form resulting therefrom is not to be 

 found. Whether their diet of fish and oil tends to neutralize the effect 

 of tobacco is something yet to be determined, but it is certain that the 

 habit has run a siege of many years, and if first introduced among them 

 by the whites it probably occurred at least a half century ago. 



They have a substitute for smoking tobacco in a kind of wood or wild 

 shrub found in the country, and it may be that the habit of smoking 

 dates back to a time before they knew of such a thing as tobacco. And 

 for chewing, when one has no tobacco, he finds a fair substitute in a 

 piece of seal skin, which furnishes masticating properties, at least, if 

 not the essence of tobacco. 



It is a common practice also, when one is out of tobacco, to take a 

 piece of cloth, and, after rubbing it over the inside of his tobacco-pouch, 

 to chew it, and he apparently finds some little comfort from the pro- 

 cess, even if he does not succeed in extracting much of the real flavor. 



The taking of snuff is also a practice among many of the Eskimo, 

 and is usually made by mixing tobacco that has first been cut fine and 

 afterwards ground to a powder in a little wooden mortar, with pulver 

 ized embers from a wood fire. It makes a good substitute for snuff, 

 giving all the flavor and enough of the exhilarating properties to pro 

 voke as hearty a sneeze as one would wish to enjoy. 



The snuff is generally carried in little pouches made from seal entrail 

 and to the sealskin string tied around the pouch is a section of a hol- 

 low bone. One end of this is put in the snuff and the other inserted 



