Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/209

190 three whales recently captured would serve for a long time; one of these was sawed, chopped, and split for use. The bone is very porous, and filled with oil; the heat from it is great. One cord of bone must be equivalent to four cords of live oak. There was also some timber of the wrecked whaler down the bay.

As it regarded food, we had to husband our stores very carefully. On Sunday, October 27th, a new order of things commenced, and instead of three meals a day we had only two. Bread or flour was the most nourishing food then on board, with the exception of beans, which were to be served out twice a week. There was salt junk and salt pork, but eating either was felt to be almost worse than being without. Thus we soon found it best to fall back upon our Innuit food, and it would have amused many persons at home to have seen our messes at our daily meals. Some, too, would have wondered how we could eat such stuff; but certainly that surprise would cease when they were told we must eat it in order to live. I do not think it can be said that any of us ate "black skin" (whale skin) and other Innuit food because we really liked it. Some wise person has said that man should not live to eat, but eat to live. We were of the latter class, hence the necessity of relishing whatever came in our way. I may here mention an incident that occurred about this time which shows the simplicity of the Innuit character in matters connected with money. Of course money, as we have it, is to them unknown. One day "John Bull" came to Captain B to buy a new one-dollar shirt, handing him two American cents as payment. Ugarng, in like manner, tried to buy a violin to which he had taken a fancy. The violin belonged to Bailey, one of the steerage hands, and Ugarng, calling him aside, whispered in his ear, "Viddle, viddle—wonga—piletay—money," and then slipped into Bailey's hand what he supposed to be a generous sum, one cent of the latest coinage. But Bailey could not trade for that, and Ugarng went away without his "viddle."