Fig. 57. Sealskin cup.
The capacity of these vessels is seldom more than a couple of quarts, and generally less. They are principally used to ladle water into the cooking kettles. All these vessels of native manufacture are being rapidly displaced by tin cups and small kettles.
[ FOOD AND ITS PREPARATION. ]
Under certain conditions a great portion of their food is eaten raw, but it is invariably cooked when it conveniently can be. Frozen food is consumed in great quantities. I have seen them strip and devour the back, fat, and flesh from the body of a deer while the fibers were yet quivering. The entrails of many species of birds are taken from the body and, while yet warm, swallowed much after the manner of swallowing an oyster. The eggs which have been incubated to an advanced degree are as eagerly devoured as those quite fresh.
The deer meat, killed the previous fall and frozen for three or four months, is cut into huge chunks and gnawed with as much satisfaction as though it was the finest pastry. On such occasions I have seen the person appointed to chop up the frozen meat scatter the pieces among the expectant crowd with as little ceremony as that of throwing ears of corn to the hogs in a pen. For a change the frozen pieces of meat are sometimes warmed or thawed before the fire.
The blood of the deer is often mixed with the half-digested mass of food in the stomach of the animal, and the stomach, with its contents, with the addition of the blood, eaten raw or boiled. Sometimes it is laid aside to ferment and then frozen and eaten in this condition.
Strips of fat from a seal and the blood of the animal are put into a kettle and heated. The oily liquid is eaten with the greatest relish. Seal oil is used for food in about the same manner as we use syrups. Years of almost daily intercourse with these people have failed to show the ability of any person to drink seal or whale oil without illness resulting. They never drink pure oil under any circumstances, except as a laxative. The statement often made that these people drink oil as food is simply preposterous. Such statements doubtless arose from seeing other preparations of food having an abundance of oil upon them. Lean flesh is often dipped into oil and then eaten. If partaken of without oil in as great quantities as these people require, a torpid condition of the liver and alimentary canal results, and they thus employ the pure oil to relieve themselves.
Vegetable food is little used except in the vicinity of the trading stations. Those accustomed to the use of flour, bread, peas, beans, and rice are very fond of them, and often express regret that they will be deprived of them when on their hunting expeditions.
Native plants afford little help as food. During the season when the various berries are ripe all the people gorge themselves. They have a special fondness for the akpik (Rubus chœmomorus). The sun scarcely reddens the side of these berries, locally known as “bake apple,” before the children scour the tracts where they grow, and eat of the half-ripened fruit with as much relish as the civilized boy does the fruit purloined from a neighbor’s orchard. Other berries contribute their share as food.