XII.] 
STONE HAMMERS. 
113 
are worn in the belt. As examples of Chukch dishes I may 
further mention, vegetable soup, boiled seal-flesh, boiled fish, 
blood soup, soup of seal-blood and blubber. To these we may 
add soup from finely crushed bones, or from seal-flesh, blubber, 
and bones. For crushing the bones there is in every tent a 
hammer, consisting of an oval stone with a hollow round it for 
a skin thong, with which the stone is fastened to the short shaft 
of wood or bone. The bones which are used for food are finely 
crushed with this implement against a stone anvil or a 
whale’s vertebra, and then boiled with water and blood, before 
being eaten. At first we believed that this dish was intended 
for the dogs, but afterwards I had an opportunity of convincing 
myself that the natives themselves ate it; and that long before 
the time when they suffered from scarcity of provisions. The 
hammer is further of interest as forming one of the stone im¬ 
plements which are most frequently found in graves from the 
Stone Age. That the hammer was mainly intended for kitchen 
purposes appears from the circumstance that the women alone 
had it at their disposal, and were consulted when it was parted 
with. Along with such hammers there was to be found in every 
tent an anvil, consisting of a whale’s vertebra or a large round 
stone with a bowl-formed depression worn or cut out in the 
middle of it. 
During winter a great portion of the inhabitants of Yinretlen, 
Pitlekaj, and as far as from Irgunnuk, came daily on board to 
beg or buy themselves provisions, and during this period they 
were fed mainly by us. They soon accustomed themselves to 
our food. They appeared specially fond of pea-soup and por¬ 
ridge. The latter they generally laid out on a snow-drift to 
freeze, and then took it in the frozen form to the tents. 
Coffee they did not care for unless it was well sugared. Salt 
they did not use, but with sugar they were all highly delighted. 
They also drank tea with pleasure. Otherwise water forms 
their principal drink. They were, however, often compelled in 
VOL. II. 
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