58 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



their berries, in fact everything that they eat. A little wooden 

 trencher or tub, grotesquely carved, always is to be seen (and 

 smelled), placed alongside of the monotonous kettle of stewed fish, or 

 pile of dried fish, which constitutes the regular spread fora full meal. 

 And again, a very curious, soap-like use of this oil is made by the 

 younger and more comely savages. An Indian never washes in water 

 up in this wet and watery wilderness. I never have seen an attempt 

 made to wash the face or hands with water, but they do rub oil vigor- 

 ously over, and scrub it off bright and dry with a towel, or mop, of 

 cedar-bark shreds or dry sedge-grass. The constant presence of 

 this strong-flavored oil renders it a physical impossibility for a white 

 man, not long-accustomed to its odor, to enter a rancherie and eat 

 with the inmates, unless the pangs of starvation make him ravenous. 



Whether from taste itself, or sheer indolence, the culinary art 

 of these people is confined to the incessant simmering and boiling 

 of everything which is not eaten raw, or ripe ; copper, sheet-iron, 

 and brass kettles being now universally used, are the only decid- 

 ed innovation made by contact with ourselves in their aboriginal 

 cooking outfit, though the introduction of tin and cheap earthen- 

 ware dishes is growing more general every day. Most of the In- 

 dian household utensils are made of wood ; they are fashioned in 

 several forms or types, which appear to have been faithfully copied 

 from early time. The berry and the food-trays are cut out of solid 

 pieces of wood, the length being about one and one-third times as 

 great as the width, while the depth is relatively small. In some of 

 the large rancheries these trays, or troughs, are six to ten feet long ; 

 the outer ends of those receptacles are generally carved richly in all 

 sorts of fancy relief ; and, sometimes, the sides are grotesquely 

 painted. A common form, and smaller in size, and a great favorite 

 with the family, is boat-shaped, the hollow of the dish being oval ; 

 the ends are provided with odd prow-shaped projections that serve 

 as handles one of these ends being usually carved into the head 

 and fore-feet of some animal or bird, the other to represent its 

 hind-feet and tail. These dishes are seldom more than eight or ten 

 inches in length, and curve upward from the middle each way, like 

 the "sheer," or the gunwale, of a clipper ship. 



Water-dippers, pot-spoons and ladles are made from horns 

 of the mountain sheep. They are steamed, bent, and pared down 

 thin, carved and shaped so as to be exceedingly symmetrical, and 

 well finished. The stew and berry-spoons in ordinary use are made 



