Of these morsels the children came in
for no small share, every little urchin that could find its way to
the slaughterhouse running eagerly in, and, between the legs of
the men and women, presenting its mouth for a large lump of raw
flesh, just as an English child of the same age might do for a
piece of sugar-candy. Every now and then, also, a dog would make
his way towards the reeking carcass, and, when in the act of
seizing upon some delicate part, was sent off yelping by a heavy
blow with the handles of the knives. When all the flesh is
disposed of, for a portion of which each of the women from the
other huts usually brings her ootkooseek, the blubber still
remains attached to the skin, from which it is separated the last;
and the business being now completed, the two parts of the hide
are rolled up and laid by, together with the store of flesh and
blubber. During the dissection of their seals, they have a curious
custom of sticking a thin filament of skin, or of some part of the
intestines, upon the foreheads of the boys, who are themselves
extremely fond of it, it being intended, as Iligliuk afterward
informed me, to make them fortunate seal-catchers.
The seals which they take during the winter are of two kinds--the
_Neitiek_, or small seal (_phoca hispida_), and the _Oguke_, or
large seal (_phoca barbata_).
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