The sun., 1919-04-13

its animal life so different from that
OF the land to which they were used
that they conceived 1t necessary to
keep the two rigidly apart and that
| taboos were therefore established.
The western Eskimo consider that
sudden death, pestilence. or famins
! will follow upon the sewing of caribou
skin garments within a certain num-
Der of days after one of the large sea
mammals has been killed. 1t is true
among many tribes of Eskimo that
caribou skin garments must not be
made or mended on the sea ice. The
! flesh OF caribou and OF seals must not.
among some tribes, b. eaten at the
same time, nor must the flesh Of Carl
bou be eaten on the sea at all. Under
other circumstances when both may
be eaten, they will have to be cooked
in separate utensils and certain cere.
monies have to be performed to cancel
as it were, the evil effects that might
otherwise ensue.
| Here, however everything was DIFF
ferent. Not only did these seal hunt
ers engage in the cutting up OF the
animals, but the meat was taken home
and cooked in the same pots in which
seal meat had been cooked and eaten;
and not only the same day that seal
meat had been eaten and the seals had
been killed. but the seal meat and Carl
bou meat were actually eaten at the
| same meal by the same individuals.
New Pot String Used.
| One old man, however, said that he
| knew that it was not right to boil carl
bou meat in the same pot in which seal
meat had been boiled unless you
suspended the pot by different string
His wife therefore took off the old
greasy string which had served as
Bale for the stone pot, braided new
sinew string, and swung the pot by
that over the lamp. These Eskimo
have various taboos relating TO seal
and to caribou, but none of those that
l have seen in use or heard Of, except
in the case of this one incident of the
string, had any tendency TO keep the
two apart.
| In the next village visited by us we
| engaged to go with US to Banks Island
a man named Kirkpuk. who had an
| excellent wife, which was the main
consideration, for Natkusiak and I
were we'll able to provide food and raw
material for clothing, but We needed
an able woman TO do sewing for us.
and especially for making waterproof
sealskin boots, without which a sum-
! mer on the swampy tundra and more
! especially a spring on the water COW
cred spring ice were very disagreeable
things to face
was little surprised to find Kirk
puk and his wife willing to go with
us, for they had baby not more than
six or eight weeks old. but they told
me that they would leave the child
! with its grandmother. and that the ar
rangement was one that they had con-
templated anyway; for had Kirkpuk
not gone with us he would. he said
have gone on a long hunt TO Bear
Lake, upon which journey the child
would have been burden, especially
as he had another one, a boy of five or
six.
1t was necessary. Kirkpuk told u.s.
that we wait day or two while his
wife finished cutting up blubber and
putting it in bags for the summer.
Most of these he would give to his
wife's father to cache on the main
land, but one bag We were TO take
Island, with the idea Of his using It
next fall when he was returning from
Banks Island to his own country.
Il The Region of Seals.
In order to put the people in as good
humor as possible I told Natkusiak to
go out and try to get one or more
bearded seals, of which there were
great numbers in This neighborhood.
Dolphin and Union Straits, wherever
they are narrow enough so that the
current keeps the ice thin, are stocked
with seals beyond any part OF the
Arctic Ocean known to me or to our
Eskimos. And not only are there plenty
Of seals, but mos of these are of the
! valuable bearded variety CPhoca bar
bata), one Of which Is easily equal to
four common seals faetida) either in
blubber or in meat. Curiously enough.
the eastern Eskimos do not use the
bearded seal skins for boot soles. as do
those further west, but employ them
J entirely as material for ropes,
On the morning when we crossed
: from the mainland to Lambert Island
had, standing at sea level. counted
, with the naked eye over forty seals
, within a radius Of two miles bsslxlng
: in the sun, and more than three
; lfourths Of these we're bearded seals.
In this locality the bearded seal
cannot be taken by the ordinary
J, Eslkimo method of hunting, which is
! to approach him by crawling up and