130 G. Holm. 



If the inmates of the house which is visited by guests are rich, or 

 in other words, have plenty of provisions, a ravenous feasting takes 

 place. One seal after the other is taken into the house to be con- 

 sumed. The food which the guests are unable to eat up is given 

 them to take with them on their journey homewards, and the 

 kaiaks are often loaded full with food. Even after the lapse of two 

 or three days they declare, perhaps out of politeness to their host, 

 that they are still sated with the food they have eaten. It has 

 already been mentioned that, when there are guests in the house, 

 they extinguish the lamps in the evening. 



When people have a chance of a feasting at a distant house, 

 they don't mind undergoing any amount of fatigue and exertion. 

 A day's journey in deep snow over hills and ice-covered fjords 

 is a mere trifle to them. In this way they often risk being cut off 

 from coming home. 



The hosts sometimes repent of their generosity, as the following 

 instance will serve to show. 



In the beginning of winter there was an abundance of provisions 

 at Kangarsik. People arrived from all parts and the feasting was 

 most riotous ; but before the winter was over, they had run short 

 of provisions, and the men then complained to us of the numbers 

 of guests they had had. 



The first time we visited our neighbours after they had moved 

 into houses, they gave a banquet in our honour. A large Greenland 

 seal was dragged in through the narrow passage-way. We were invited 

 to come to the spot where it had been deposited. The most awful 

 scene now ensued. All the men flocked round the seal which now 

 could hardly be seen for the numbers of naked people around it, 

 amongst whose legs the boys crawled about to get their share also. 

 The seal, which had been caught in summer, was mikiak, i. e. half- 

 putrefied, and gave forth the most unbearable stench. All were en- 

 gaged in cutting pieces off the seal, which in an incredibly short 

 time was consumed quite raw with great voracity. Not merely the 

 flesh, but even the entrails were eaten raw, and the blood lapped 

 up with the lingers. Boys who were too small to take part were 

 handed bits of flesh and blubber torn from the seal's body, and 

 soon their faces and bodies were smeared all over with blood. 

 When the men had feasted to Iheir heart's content and the meal 

 was at an end, they each took a piece of flesh home to their wives, 

 who remained quietly sitting on the platform. 



When the feasting began, the man who had given the banquet 

 in my honour, and who repeatedly noticed that I did not touch the 

 food, asked me whether perhaps I did not prefer to take the meat 



