The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-14
ESKIMO DIET.
ut fs Not Altogether Barbarous When
You Acquire tho Tnste.


You Acquire the Taste.
had rcad about Eskimo eating
habits, begins o writer in Gold
thwaitc' Magazine, how once upon a
time, for instance. an Arctic explorer
Offered some Eskimo girls some
'ewectmcats, which were rejected,
while tallow Candles wero eagerly az
cepted and eaten. Now was to sec
On Eskimo eat With many smiles
Pcter ontercd tho cabin and sat down
at the table l should have apologized
to him on account Of tho scantincss of
our fnre, for we had no candles and
thero wasn't bit Of t,lllow on deck
even, let ulono in the cabin, but I
noticed that the butter plato was heap
ing full, the sight Of which made mo
wish for some of my friends so that we
could nuke pool on the number OF
bites he would take In swallowing the
roll. Then Pctcr sat down ind with
out ceremony helped himself to a lot Of
baked beans, piece Of dry bread and
q large piece of worry lean salt beef. all
of which he bit into and swallowed as
u hungry longshorsnan might have
done. Then he took more boans nnd
moro brood and moro lean beef, and with
them several cups of coffee with Il great
dcol of sugar to each cup. lie was n
long time getting to it, but he finally
began ON tho butter. Tie had poured
his last cup of coffee and was looking
about for something to cat with it,
when his eye fell on o plate of calsc
Taking q small pieco, he put small
Jump of butter on 1t and slowly atc
the combination with the coffee To the
reader of geographical magazine
1t may seem strungc, but the fact is,
until / saw this man Mt the table, had
1onlly expected TO find the EslSinos
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 I had u misty idea
that an Eskimo was little black In-
dian, whose chief delight among tho
things brought from civilized country
was the tnllow candle. The staple food
is seal meat md blubbcr. Next to that
Is the little fish taken in the ford and
dried for winter use, known to them as
tho augmatfnt and TO the learned as
salno villosus. A favorite way of eat
ing the dried augmntfat Is to take it hy
VIZ SSAi- pOtNO ~ liiOO ullO Oily UluOUOE
for awhile and then chow it down.
Awful, isn't it2 1t is almost Us bad rs
eating sardincs- There Is o deal in q
name Blubbcr is disgusting; oil. if for
use on salad, is delicious and inds-
pcnsable- have eaten seal OIL and
found it very unexpectedly good I
had supposed it would have q flavor of
fish oil There Is no such flavor about
II 1t Is equal to the best extract Of
cotton soed-that quality sold as olive
Oil in all American gloccrios- Aug
matfat and blubbcr, under Il French
labol, would bc deemed luxury in
Now York as in Arsuls For the rest
tho EslsiInoi trade seal oil and skins
to their governor for three kinds of
hardtaclS, for coffee, sugar and tea.
They catch Arctic goldfish (misarkornak
in Eskimo and gatlus navaga in the
boolIs) and salmon in tho seasons; they
shoot no end of gulls, ducks, pt<lr1nigans
end the Arctic hare; they have eggs in
endless quantity in tho season. and very
many foxes are trapped. The fox is to
the Eskimo what tho 'possum is to
tho plantation darby. lie likes to
smoke, and under favoring circum-
stances will swap anything he's got,
Including his wife, for rum