As soon as this dirty
operation was at an end, during which the numerous by-standers
amused themselves in chewing the intestines of the seal, the
strangers retired to their own huts, each bearing a small portion
of the flesh and blubber, while our hosts enjoyed a hearty meal of
boiled meat and hot gravy soup. Young Sioutkuk ate at least three
pounds of solid meat in the first three hours after our arrival at
the huts, besides a tolerable proportion of soup, all which his
mother gave him whenever he asked it, without the smallest remark
of any kind. We now found that they depended on catching seals
alone for their subsistence, there being no walruses in this
neighbourhood. As they were several miles from any open water,
their mode of killing them was entirely confined to watching for
the animals coming up in the holes they make through the ice.
In the course of the evening our conversation happened to turn on
the Indians, a people whom none of these Esquimaux had ever seen;
but with whose ferocity and decided hostility to their own nation
they seemed to be well acquainted. They described, also, their
peculiar manner of paddling their canoes, and were aware that they
made use of the kind of show-shoes which we showed them.
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