Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/163

The size of the flame of the lamp depends upon the circumstances; if food is to be cooked and there is plenty of blubber, the whole wick burns and the lamp can then give off considerable heat. Cooking by means of the blubber lamp always proceeds slowly, however. A small, round, iron pan with three large pieces of seal Image missingFig. 92.Drying frames. meat, a meal for two adults and a child, will with a 20 cm flame be cooked in an hour and a quarter. A large oval iron cooking pot, with caribou meat for four men and a child, cooked over a 40 cm flame, is ready in two hours. The temperature for the meat and in the house naturally plays a great part. If no cooking is being done, only a small part of the wick burns; at night a very little flame burns — if this is not extinguished too.

Over the lamp is the drying rack (pauktutit). It consists of three rods, one vertical, standing in the corner of the side platform, and two horizontal, which are stuck into the snow wall at right angles to each other; the ends of these three sticks are lashed together. A fourth stick is then put into the wall at right angles to the direction of the lamp but nearer to the wall; its other end rests upon the stick that is parallel with the lamp. On the two sticks at right angles to the lamp hangs the cooking pot suspended by cords, and over them, resting on the sticks, is the drying frame (ingnitaq). It consists of a frame of wood or bone and a net of cord or strips of skin. The usual form is shown in fig. 92.1 (Ponds Inlet); it is a halfmoon shaped wooden frame, 81 cm long, 47 cm wide, and a net of thin strips of seal skin fastened to holes in the frame. Fig. 92.2 (Iglulik) is a more primitive form, 55 × 40 cm; the frame is made of two curved pieces of antler; the net is of sinew-thread cord, strung rather irregularly. A similar, irregular, oval form is seen on the drying frame figured