Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/155

 and as they worked, so did they keep eating. Boat-load after boat-load of this did they send over to the village, where several deposits were made upon islands in the vicinity. All day long were they eating; and, thought I, "What monstrous stomachs must these Esquimaux have!" Yet I do not think, on the whole, they eat more than white men. But the quantity taken in one day—enough to last for several days—is what astonishes me! They are, in truth, a peculiar people. "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the whole face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations." Take the Esquimaux away from the arctic regions—from the shores of the northern seas, and they would soon cease from the face of the earth. The bounds of their habitations are fixed by the Eternal, and no one can change them. Thus these people live.

My opinion is, that the Esquimaux practice of eating their food raw is a good one—at least for the better preservation of their health. To one educated otherwise, as we whites are, the Esquimaux custom of feasting on uncooked meats is highly repulsive; but eating meats raw or cooked is entirely a matter of education. "As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined," is an old saw as applicable to the common mind of a people in regard to the food they eat as to any thing else. When I saw the natives actually feasting on the raw flesh of the whale, I thought to myself, "Why cannot I do the same?" and the response to my question came rushing through my brain, independent of prejudice, "Because of my education—because of the customs of my people from time immemorial."

As I stood upon the rocky shore observing the busy natives at work carving the monster before me, my eye caught a group around one of the vertebræ, from which they were slicing and eating thin pieces of ligament that looked white and delicious as the breast of a Thanksgiving turkey! At once I made up my mind to join in partaking of the inviting (?) viands actually smoking in my sight. Taking from the hands of Ugarng his seal-knife, I peeled off a delicate slice of this spinal ligament, closed my eyes, and cried out "Turkey!" But it would not