Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/192

Rh myself butt up against a dozen Esquimaux, all lusty fellows, and crowded together in a heap, each armed with a knife! But there was no cause for alarm. The knives were not for any warlike or evil purpose. They were being used simply for cutting off strips of seal, to be shoved into the widely-extended mouths of the hungry people before me. Quite at the back of the tent I perceived my Esquimaux friend Koojesse seated between two pretty females, all three engaged in doing full justice to a dish of smoking-hot seal-blood! Seeing me, Koojesse at first seemed abashed; but, on my expressing a readiness to partake of any food they had to spare, one of the women immediately drew forth from the stew-pan about four inches of seal vertebræ, surrounded by good meat. I managed to eat the latter, and then determined to try the seal-blood. To my surprise, I found it excellent. "On first receiving the dish containing this Esquimaux stew, I hesitated. It had gone the round several times, being replenished as occasion required; but its external appearance was not at all inviting. Probably it had never gone through the cleaning process, for it looked as though such were the case. But I screwed up courage to try it, and finally, when the dish came again to those by my side, I asked Koojesse, 'Pe-e-uke?' (Is it good?) ' Armelarng, armelarng ' (Yes, yes), was the reply. "All eyes were fixed upon me as I prepared to join with them in drinking some of their favourite soup. "Now the custom of the Esquimaux in drinking seal-blood is to take one long s-o-o-o-p—one mouthful, and then pass the dish on to the rest till the round is made. I followed suit, and, to my astonishment, found the mixture not only good, but really excellent. I could not have believed it was so far superior to what my previous notions had led me to expect. "Seeing I was pleased with it, she who presided at the feast instantly made ready a pretty little cup, which was clean outside and in, or clean as an Esquimaux can make it, and filled it with the hot seal-blood. This I sipped down