FOOD. 397 



have arrived at a dim consciousnes of their dirtiness, do 

 generally but make matters worse, for if they wish, to 

 treat a guest " genteelly, they first lick the piece of meat 

 he is to eat clean from the blood and scum it had- con- 

 tracted in the kettle, with their tongue ; and should any 

 one not kindly accept it, he would be looked upon as an 

 unmannerly man for despising their civility."* The Esqui- 

 maux observed by Dr. Rae at Repulse Bay were, however, 

 much cleaner in their habits. 



Their food consists principally of reindeer, musk ox, walrus, 

 seals, birds, and salmon. They will, however, eat any kind 

 of animal food. They are very fond of fat and marrow, 

 to get at which they pound the bones with a stone. The 

 southern tribes get a few berries in summer, but those who 

 live in the north have scarcely any vegetable food except 

 that which they obtain in a half- digested form from the 

 stomach of the reindeer, and this they regard as a great 

 delicacy ;f the northernmost of all, being unable to kill 

 reindeer, are entirely deprived of vegetable food. Their 

 drink consists of blood or water, of which they consume 

 large quantities; thawing snow over a lamp, which is 

 generally made of lapis ollaris. 



"I was once present/' J says Captain Cook, "when the 

 chief of Oonalashka made his dinner of the raw head of a 

 large halibut, just caught. Before any was given to the 

 chief, two of his servants eat the gills, without any other 

 dressing besides squeezing out the slime. This done, one of 

 them cut off the head of the fish, took it to the sea and 

 washed it, then came with it and sat down by the chief: 

 first pulling up some grass, upon a part of which the head 

 was laid, and the rest was strewed before the chief. He 



* Crantz, p. 168 ; Parry, Second Voyage, p. 293 ; Lyon's Journal, p. 142. 

 f Ross. Narrative of a Second Voyage, p. 352. 

 J Cook's Third Voyage, vol. ii , p. 511. 



