232 



THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



tbese. Buckets aud cups of various sizes for holding water and other 

 fluids are made of tanned seal skin sewed with sinew. The sides of the 

 bucket are a strip of seal skin bent into a ring, 

 witli a round piece of seal skin sewed on for a 

 bottom. Sometimes a seal-skin bail is added, 

 or a wooden handle sewed to the lips of the 

 cup, making it into a dipper (Figs. 50, 57.) 

 Wooden baskets are made in a simiilar fashion 



strip of spruce 

 wood is bent near- 

 ly circulai-. The 

 f ? V-'-^^^^^^B |; ' '^'^-'^^^^Bl^ end^ of the strip 



fevii-- f^^^B^m W "'■■■■'^■^^^^^^^^^^ ^"^^ ftistened with 



fine iron wire. The 

 bottom is a sepa- 

 rate piece and has 

 a rim or edge for 



Fia. 56. Sealskin bucket. Fig. 57. SeaLskin cup. the UPDCr Dirt to 



set on, and is held in place by means of small wooden pegs driven 

 through aud into the bottom. 



Tlie capacity of these vessels is seldom more than a couple of quarts, 

 and generally less. They are principally used to ladle water into the 

 cooking kettles. All these vessels of native manufacture are being 

 rapidly displaced by tin cups and small kettles. 



FOOD AND ITS PRKPARATION 



Under certain conditions a great portion of their food is eaten raw, 

 but it is invariably cooked when it conveniently can be. Frozen food 

 is consumed in great quantities. I have seen them strip and devour 

 the back, fat, and flesh from the body of a deer while the fibers were yet 

 quivering. The entrails of many species of birds are taken from the 

 body aud, while yet warm, swallowed much after the manner of swallow- 

 ing an oyster. The eggs which have been incubated to an advanced 

 degree are as eagerly devoured as those quite fresh. 



The deer meat, killed the previous fall and frozen for three or four 

 months, is cut into huge chunks and gnawed with as much satisfac- 

 tion as though it was the finest pastiy. On such occasions I have seen 

 the person appointed to chop up the frozea meat scatter the pieces 

 among the expectant crowd with as little ceremony as that of th rowing- 

 ears of corn to the hogs in a pen. For a change the frozen i^ieces of 

 meat are sometimes warmed or thawed before the fire. 



The blood of the deer is often mi.xed with the half-digested mass of 

 food in the stomach of the animal, and the stomach, with its contents, 

 with the addition of the blood, eaten raw or boiled. Sometimes it is 

 laid aside to ferment and then frozen and eaten iu this condition. 



