Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/161

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as a wick (on Southampton Island); sometimes the moss is mixed with willow fluff. The finely-chopped moss is moistened with oil and placed in a row of lumps along the front edge of the lamp, in which oil, if they have it, is poured so that it just reaches them. They are then lighted and teased out with the lamp trimmer into a continuous

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Fig. 89.Blubber pounder.
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Fig. 90.Lamp trimmers.

strip; there must be no points or other irregularities in the strip, as this makes the flame smoke, and smoke is detested by the Eskimos. The wick should preferably be renewed every day.

The typical form of lamp trimmer (tarqut) is shown on Fig. 90.1;[1] this one is from Itibdjeriang. It consists of a fine-grained marly slate which is only found in Admiralty Inlet and has a four-sided, richly decorated handle and a round point, bent over at the end, 18 cm long. A lamp trimmer from Repulse Bay of the same

  1. ↑ Cf. Boas 1907, fig. 201.
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