116 
A MORNING REPAST. 
before her, to bring out the counterpart of my own 
smoking morsel. I learned afterward that the utensil 
has its two recognised uses; and that, when not imme¬ 
diately wanted for the purposes of pot or table, it 
ministers to the “royal luxury” of the Scottish king. 
I dare not amplify this description. 
Dirt or filth in our sense is not a conceived quality 
with these Esquimaux. Incidentally it may be an 
annoyance or obstruction; but their nearest word, 
“Eberk,” expi'esses no more than this. 
It is an ethnological trait of these ultra-northern 
nomads,—so far as I know, a unique one; and must 
be attributed not alone to their predatory diet and 
peculiar domestic system, but to the extreme cold, 
which by rapid freezing resists putrefaction and pre¬ 
vents the joint accumulation of the dogs and the 
household from being intolerable. Their senses seem 
to take no cognizance of what all instinct and associa¬ 
tion make revolting to the sight and touch and smell 
of civilized man. 
My note-book proves this by exact and disgusting 
details, the very mildest of which I cannot transfer to 
these pages. 
I spent some time at Etah in examining the glacier 
and in making sketches of things about me. I met 
several old friends. Among the rest was Awahtok, 
only now recovering from his severe frost-bite, the 
effect of his fearful adventure with Myouk among the 
drifting ice. I gave him a piece of red flannel and 
powwowed him. He resides with Ootuniah in the 
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