Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/310

Rh Our breakfast and dinner were both excellent; for the former, raw frozen walrus, of which I had a piece for my share of about five pounds, and at the latter, seal. The portion of this allotted to me and Sterry was the head. We complied with the Innuit custom. Sterry took a mouthful, then passed it to me, and when I had done the same it was returned to him, and so on. Of course fingers were all in all. No knives and forks are found among the Innuits; fingers and teeth are more than their equivalent. When the meat, skin, and hair were all despatched—even the eyes, except the balls, which were given to the youngest child of Sampson—we "tapped" the brain. I was surprised at the amount of a seal's brains, and equally so at the deliciousness of them! The skull was almost as thin as paper. Shoot a seal in the head and it dies. Shoot a walrus in the head, and the damage is to the ball, which immediately flattens, without effecting any injury whatever to the walrus. Later in the day I attended another feast in the igloo of Kookin, who had invited his old mother, Shel-lu-ar-ping, and two other venerable dames, and I must say that if my friends at home could then have seen how like an Innuit I ate, they would have blushed for me. First came a portion of seal's liver, raw and warm from its late existence in full life. This, with a slice of ooksook (blubber), was handed to each, and I made away with mine as quick as any of the old adepts. Then came ribs inclosed in tender meat, dripping with blood. How ambrosial to my palate! Lastly came—what? Entrails, which the old lady drew through her fingers yards in length. This was served to every one but me in pieces of two to three feet long. I saw at once that it was supposed I would not like to eat this delicacy; but, having partaken of it before, I signified my wish to do so now; for, be it remembered, there is no part of a seal but is good: I drew the ribbon-like food through my teeth Innuit fashion; finished it, and then asked for moremore. [sic] This immensely pleased the old dames. They were in ecstasies. It seemed as if they thought me the best of the group. They