The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-07-02

Il d Net AltssstAcr nszharess WHs4
You Aoourt ~ 1nsees
1 had read abont Eskimo eatihg
habits begins 4 writer ID Gold
thWaite' Magazine; how once upon Z
time, for instance, an Arctic explorer
offered some Eskimo girls some
swsetmcats, which were rejected,
while tallow candles were eagerly ac-
cepted and eaten. Now was TO see
Al Eskimo eat. With many smiles
Peter entered the cabin and sat down
IL the table. should have apologized
to him on account Of the scantiness Of
our fare, for we had no candles and
there wasn't q bit Of tallow on deck
even, let alone in the cabin, but !
noticed that the butter plate was heap
Ing full, the sight of which made me
wish for some 81 my friends 80 that we
could make q pool on the number q
bites he would take in swallowing the
roll. Then Peter sat down and with
out ceremony helped himself to lot q
baked beans, q piece Of dry bread and
q large piece Of very lean salt beef,aii
Of which he bit into and swallowed as
q hungry 'longshoreman might have
done. Then he took more beans and
more bread and more lean beef, and with
them several cups Of coffee with great
deal Of sugar to each cup. He was
long time getting to it, but he finally
began on the butter. He had poured
his last cup Of coffee and was looking
about for something to eat with It,
when his eye fell ON q plate OF cake.
Taking small piece, he put small
lump of butter It and slowly-ate
the mbination with the coffee. To the
reader Of q geographical magazine
it may seem strange, but the TACT Il,
until saw this man at the table, had
really expected to find the Eskimos
Of south Greenland showing the habits
and tastes OF those living thousand
miles farther up the coast. ! had not
quite expected to find them living In
snow houses, but / had misty idea
that an Eskimo was little black In
dian, whose chief delight among the
things brought from civilized country
was the tallow candle. The staple food
is seal meat and blubber. Next to that
is the little fish taken in the ford and
dried for winter use, known to them as
the augmatfat and to the learned as
salmo villosus. A favorite way of eat
ing the dried augmatfat is to take it by
the tail, poke it into the oily blubber
for awhile and then chew it down.
Awful, isn't it? It is almost as bad as
eating sardines. There is deal in a
name. Blnbber is disgusting; oil, if for
use on salad, is delicious and indis-
pensable. I have eaten seal oil and
found it very unexpectedly good.
had supposed 1t would have flavor Of
fish oil There is no such flavor about
it. It is equal to the best extract Of
cotton seed-that quality sold as olive
oil in all American groceries. Aug
matfat and blubber, under a French
label, would be deemed a luxury in
New York as in Arsuk. For the rest
the Eskimos trade seal oil and skins
to their governor for three kinds Of
bareback, for coffee, sugar and tea.
They catch Arctic Goldfish (misarkornak
in Eskimo and gadus navaga in the
bool1s) and salmon in the seasons; they
shoot no end of gulls, ducks, ptarmigans
and the Arctic hare; they have eggs in
endless quantity in the season, and very
many foxes are trapped. The fox is to
the Eskimo what the 'possum is to
the plantation darby. He likes to
smoke, and under favoring circum-
stances will swap anything he's got,
including his wife, for rum.