SOCIAL LIFE — EATING. 



563 



wall of the- house, and at last the hunter is ready to enter. He 

 strii^s off his deerskin jacket and slips into his sealskin coat. Tlie 

 former is carefully cleaned of the adhering ice and snow with the 

 snowbeater and put into the storeroom outside the house. 



This done, the men are ready for their dinnei', of which the women 

 do not partake. In winter the staple food of the Eskimo is boiled 

 seal and walrus meat, though in some parts of the western districts it 

 is musk ox and venison, a rich and nourishing souj) being obtained 

 by cooking tlie meat. The natives are jjarticularly fond of seal and 

 walrus soup, which is made by mixing and boiling water, blood, and 

 blubber with large i)ieces of meat. ' 



^.^^ _ 



s 



Fig. Sir. Forks 



The food is not always salted, but sometimes melted sea water ice, 

 which contains a sufficient quantity of salt, is used for cooking. 

 Liver is generally eaten raw and is considered a tidltit. I have seen 

 the intestines eaten only when thei e was no meat. 



Fig. 5:8. Ladle of imisk- nx linrn. iXationtil Aliispuni, W.-isliington. 10S82.1 } 



Forks (Fig. 517)' are i;sed to take the meat oiit of the kettle and 

 the soup is generally poured out into a large c;ip. Before the in- 

 troduction of European manufactures these vessels and dishes gen- 

 erally consisted of whalebone. One of these has been described by 

 Parry (I. p. 386). It was circular in form, one piece of whalebone 

 being bt'iit iutd the ])roper shape for the sides and another flat piece 

 of the s;iiiic iiiatiTial sewed to it for a bottom, so closely as to make 

 it pertVftly watertight. A ladle or spoon (Fig. 518) is sometimes 

 used in drinking it, but usually the cup is passed around, each taking 

 a sip in turn. In the same way large pieces of meat are passed 

 round, rach takiiii; as laige a mouthful as possible and then cutting 



■Thrlolk til-st l-r|iiv>r-mr 



i figure is evidently broken, a series of knobs : 



