Food 97 



CHAPTER VIII 



FOOD' 



Fishing and hunting are the Eskimo's sole means of subsistence, and meat 

 and fish are his staple diet. Neither the mainland in .Coronation gulf nor the 

 islands north of it furnish edible fruits or roots in any abundance. The only 

 vegetable foods obtainable around Dolphin and Union strait are the sorrel, 

 konguUlc, {Oxyria digyna) and the watery alpine bearberry, kovlut (Arctostaphylos 

 alpina); and even these are so rare and scattered that the wandering native 

 rarely troubles to stoop down and pluck them. During ►the six months from 

 May to October that I wandered with the Eskimos over south-west Victoria 

 island, only once did I see a blade of sorrel eaten, and twice a few stray bear- 

 berries. The latter indeed often fail to reach maturity before they are over- 

 taken by winter and covered with the faUing snow, while most of those 

 that do mature are eaten by the longspurs and the ptarmigan. Crowberries, 

 paunrat (Empetrum nigrum) are sometimes eaten by the natives, but not 

 cloudberries, akpit {Rubus chamaemorus) , although they grow plentifully 

 around Great Bear lake and perhaps in other places as well. Mr. Stef- 

 ansson, in a letter commenting on this strange neglect of the cloudberries, says, 

 " My western natives attempted to teach the local people the use of these 

 berries. We found that some of the children picked it up rather readily, but 

 some mothers were displeased at the idea of the children trying them and few 

 of the women tasted them, though a good many of the men did." 



The roots of Polygonum species — the masu that the Alaskan and Mackenzie 

 river natives esteem so highly — are eaten only sparingly by the Copper Eskimos. 

 The same letter of Mr. Stef ansson that was quoted above contains a valuable note 

 about this root. He states that it "is used to a slight extent for food in Bank's 

 island by the Victoria island Eskimos when they are over there, and according 

 to them it is used more extensively in the center of Victoria island, where the 

 Prince Albert and Albert Edward Bay people used to meet. The first day we 

 were at Rae River we joined the natives in a meal of masu roots and were told 

 that they had been eating a good many for the preceding several days, for food 

 had been scarce. We continued to eat masu during the summer, but we 

 probably ate it oftener than would have been the case had I not had with me 

 Alaska Eskimos who, I believe, commonly suggested it." 



In seasons of scarcity, of course, the Copper Eskimos will resort to any 

 kind of food. Thus several Kanghiryuak natives are said to have died through 

 eating 'tea' (niokak) during a famine.^ But the only vegetable food that enters 

 their regular diet is the semidigested reindeer moss taken directly from the 

 first stomach or rumen of the caribou. In summer when cutting up his deer 

 the hunter usually eats as much as he wants of this and throws the rest away. 

 Only occasionally is it taken to camp, where it is mixed with water till it has 

 the appearance of spinach set out to soak. It is then left td stand for a few 

 hours, and eaten cold. In the autumn, however, the stomach is allowed to 

 freeze intact with the herbs inside and kept for the early winter, when it is cut 

 into slices, distributed with the ordinary meat among the different families in 



iCf. for this chapter Stetansson, Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 47 et seq.; and 

 Dr. R. M. Anderson in the Ottawa Naturalist, October, 1918, pp. 59-65. 



•This "tea" was probably a toadstool, called "tea" from a remote resemblance to the "tabloid 

 tea" that was used by the expedition. 



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