212 LABRADOR 



and used chiefly in times of scarcity. It is also prepared 

 in northern Europe, and quite possibly may be found around 

 the entire reindeer north. When starting for a day's hunt 

 in winter, the Nascaupee takes a cup of water, stirs in a 

 handful of uinastikai, and drinks the mixture. Until 

 through hunting he takes no more food. The same ab- 

 stinence during the day's hunting is noted of the Blackfeet 

 by Shultz, and is doubtless common to the North American 

 races. 



It is probable that the slightly digested moss which enters 

 into the uinastikai appeals to our natural desire, seldom 

 gratified in the northern life, for starchy food. A certain 

 amount of this is contained by cladonia moss, although by 

 itself it is hardly digestible. The Ungava Eskimo are said 

 to chop up the caribou moss with seal oil as a sort of salad. 

 If its use among primitive people is anything like coexten- 

 sive with the range of the reindeer, there must be a practical 

 justification for it. 



There are several kinds of berries in the semi-barrens, 

 the service-berry, or mountain cranberry, being the one of 

 principal importance to the Indians. To them it is known 

 as idshitshimfo, " bitter-berry." The shore people call 

 it simply the redberry. The cloud-berry, or bake-apple, 

 grows here and there in damp places, even to the bleak 

 bogs of the height of land east of the middle George River. 

 Blueberries, delicate of flavour and structure, grow on many 

 of the coast islands and inland hills. They grow so close 

 to the ground in exposed places that often it is not easy to 

 pick one without getting a little grit at the same time. 

 The crowberry, or curlewberry, locally " blackberry ," is 

 very common near the coast, but is insipid. 



