460 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



is, the substance in which whalebone is set, is a special Inniiit delicacy ; it looks 

 like cocoa-nut meat, and tastes like unripe chestnuts. Hall could not fully ap- 

 preciate this ; but he adds savingly, " If the struggle was for life, and its pres^ 

 ervation depended upon the act, I would undoubtedly eat whale's gum until I 

 got something better to my liking." Once a substance which looked hke a 

 choice bit from a turkey's breast was handed to him. He thought he had 

 stumbled upon a delicacy, but after vainly trying to masticate it for half an 

 hour, he found it as solid as when he began. This substance was the ligament 

 lying between the vertebrae of the whale. He had made a mistake in the way 

 of disposing of it. The Innuit mode is to take a huge piece into the mouth, 

 lubricate it thoroughly, and then bolt it whole, as the boa- constrictor swallows 

 a deer. Hall thinks well of the Innuit practice of eating their meat raw, in a 

 sanitary point of view ; but he never quite liked it. He never fully came up to 

 the opinion of Mansfield Parkyns, the Abyssinian traveller, who assures us that 

 no man knows what a good beef-steak is until he has eaten it raw, before it has 

 had time to get cold. 



The costume of the Innuits is admirably adapted to the climate. The win- 

 ter dress, commencing with the feet, is thus composed : Long stockings of rein- 

 deer skin, with the hairy side next to the person ; socks of eider-duck skin, with 

 the feathers on both sides, and of seal-skin with the hair outside ; boots, the 

 legs of reindeer skin with the hair outside, the soles of seal-skin. The jacket 

 is of reindeer skin, fitting rather loosely ; those of the women have long tails 

 reaching almost to the ground. The ornamentation of the female dress de- 

 pends on the means and taste of the wearer. One " very pretty style, ' men- 

 tioned by Mr. Hall, had a fringe of colored beads across the neck, bowls of 

 Britannic-metal tea-spoons down the front flap, and a double row of copper 

 cents, surmounted by a small bell, down the tail, which was bordered by a 

 beading of leaden shot. The jacket has no opening before or behind, but is 

 slipped on over the head. The women's jacket has a hood which serves a 

 variety of purposes, among others, that of carrying the children. The breeches 

 reach below the knee, and are fastened by a string drawn about the waist. 

 Finger-rings and a head-band of bright brass, complete the fashionable cos- 

 tume. 



The religious ideas of the Innuits are very vague. They believe that there 

 is one Supreme Being who created the earth, sea, and stars ; and also a second- 

 ary divinity, his daughter, who created all things having life, whether animal 

 or vegetable. She is the tutelary deity of the Innuits. They believe in a heav- 

 en and a hell, but have no very well defined ideas about them. According to 

 Tookoolito, heaven was upward ; it is light there all the time, and there are no 

 ice or storms. Hell is downward ; no sun there, but storms and snows all the 

 while ; it is cold, and there is a great deal of ice there. Any one w^ho has been 

 killed by accident goes straight to heaven. They have a kind of priests, or 

 rather conjurers, called Angekos, whose business is to charm away sickness, 

 and secure good hunting-seasons, with an abundance of seals, walrus, and deer, 

 and an early disappearance of the ice. When his services are called for, he is 

 always, like a wise man, careful to get his pay in advance, and it is generally 



