Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/149

 blood, being considered very fine, is dipped up with skin cups or horn spoons, and consumed with the flesh.

The blubber, or outer layer of fat, which is found on most Arctic animals, is separated from the skin and cut into long strips about an inch square. Thus prepared it is swallowed, though not eaten. It is simply lowered down the throat as one might lower a rope into a well. During the summer season the blubber is not used as food, but is saved for oil, to be used for lighting purposes during the long dark nights of the succeeding winter.

An Eskimo appears to have no idea of a limited capacity for food, but usually eats until the supply fails. I knew of one exception, however, where an old woman, after doing heroically, was forced to yield.

A party of Eskimos were having a big feast on the carcase of a whale, which they consider very good food, when this woman, in her ambition, overestimated her capabilities and ate until she became quite torpid. Her friends, supposing her to be dead, trailed her out and buried her in the snow, but a day or two afterwards she kicked off the snow that covered her and rejoined her astonished companions.

Next to stowing capacity, an Eskimo's stomach is noted for its powers of digestion. For instance, both the flesh and hide of the walrus are common articles of food with them, and yet these are so hard and gritty that when skinning or cutting up the animal one has to be continually sharpening his knife.

The skin of a walrus is a good deal like that of an elephant, and is from half an inch to an inch and a half in thickness; but, notwithstanding this, and the hardness of its structure, the little Eskimo children may