90 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 191S-1S 



be offered unless it was expressly asked for, and then the transaction would be- 

 come ordinary barter. In the summer of 1915 two families separated from our 

 party for about a month. I gave pne of the women some matches, thinking they 

 would serve both families until we met again. The woman kept the matches 

 herself, and refused to give any to her companion. I questioned Higilak about 

 it, but she thought the woman had acted quite rightly: "She is an Eskimo", 

 she said, "and we don't give presents like you white men." 



Disputes are liable to arise in hunting about the ownership of game, since 

 two or three men may wound a caribou with their arrows. The hunter who 

 inflicts the first wound is entitled to the booty, but, to prevent ill feeling, he 

 generally gives some of the choicer parts of the meat, a whole saddle if he is 

 generous, to his comrade. Avranna fired at a young caribou and grazed its leg. 

 The animal was practically unhurt, and would have escaped us altogether had 

 I not brought it down with a second shot. The deer nevertheless was Avranna's. 

 If the caribou had made good its escape, though, and been brought down later, 

 he would have had no claim. Ikpakhuak came upon a caribou that had been 

 slightly wounded earlier in the day by another hunter. He shot it, and it was 

 recognized as his property, all that the other man could claim being the arrow 

 point that remained in the wound. 



The family own all the food and skins that are acquired by any of its mem- 

 bers, with this restriction, that all or some of the food must be shared with the 

 neighbours. The amount that is kept by the family for itself depends on the 

 quantity of food in camp at the time. If ten seals, for example, are caught in 

 one day, and there are only six families in the camp, it is obviously unnecessary 

 to send more than a tiny portion of the meat to each household. On the other 

 hand, if only one seal is caught, the whole of the meat must be distributed, 

 otherwise some of the people would go hungry. I accompanied Ikpakhuak on 

 a sled trip to Penny bay in the spring of 1915, to bring back some caribou meat 

 and fat which he had cached there the previous summer. On the return journey 

 we stayed at a settlement of five Akulliakattak families. As soon as we arrived 

 Ikpakhuak selected a little meat and fat from our load for each of the houses, 

 enough for about one meal for one person in each house. That night we were 

 one family's guests, and feasted on our deer-meat and on some seal-meat cooked 

 by our hostess. Small pieces of cooked seal-meat were sent over to us later 

 from each of the other houses. 



In the winter, when each housewife cooks in her own hut, she can hide 

 away some of the choicer portions of the meat for her husband and herself to 

 eat after all the visitors have left; but in summer, when most of the cooking is 

 done out of doors, everyone gathers round the pot to eat and no concealment is 

 possible. Surplus food is the property of the family, and can be stored away for 

 a future occasion. In summer innumerable caches of deer-meat and fish are 

 strewn all over the country, each of which is the property of a single family. 

 It is a serious crime to rob one of these caches, except under pressure of star- 

 vation. 



Within the family the food belongs equally to all the members. The woman 

 naturally takes charge of it,i but the husband and children may help themselves 

 at any time. When a meal is in progress every stray visitor who looks in for a 

 moment must be offered something, even if it be only a tiny morsel of meat or 

 fat. The man may be exceedingly unwelcome, but his hostess would hardly dare 

 to neglect him for fear of public disapproval; but in such cases the visitor him- 

 self will usually dechne the food. I tried to conform to their customs as far as 

 possible while I was living in their midst and when cooking rice, for example, 



'If a woman received some hardbread or similar food from us she invariably kept a portion for her 

 husband or child, though they might be miles away. 



