Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/218

Sometimes it is mixed with soup, which is "improved" by chewing pieces of blubber and spitting them into it. The contents of caribou guts (milugaut), which are more fluid and acidous than those of the stomach, are only eaten in soup. Caribou excrement is sometimes cooked with blubber and eaten.

Wasp larvae from the caribou hide (tugtup kumait) are often eaten, though more to quench thirst than to appease hunger, as they "taste like water". Hall^[1] says that the Aiviliks were very fond of soup made of these.

Musk-ox meat was once of importance to the Aiviliks. Rae^[2] says: "It appears that the favourite food of these Esquimaux is musk-ox flesh; venison ranks next, and bear and walrus are preferred to seal and fish". Boas^[3] mentions the ear cartilage of the musk-ox, eaten raw, as a great delicacy.

The flesh of wolverines, wolves, foxes and dogs is only eaten in cases of emergency; now and then, however, a piece of fox fat may be eaten as a luxury. Fat marmots are eaten now and then; more rarely they eat cooked lemmings.

Bear meat is valued next after caribou; this and the fat are eaten. cooked or frozen, more rarely raw or rotten. Bear liver is considered to be uneatable, as Klutschak^[4] also mentions.

Walrus meat is of particular importance to the Iglulingmiut; it is not so important to the Aiviliks, although Gilder^[5] refers to it as their principal food.

It is eaten cooked, frozen or rotten, more rarely raw. Rotten. walrus meat (igúnâq) is greatly prized. It is prepared in the following manner: In summer it is placed in a cache, covered with a layer of blubber, and over this stones; but as the air must get to it below, it is laid upon gravel. During the summer it will thus putrefy, the blubber oozing down and saturating it; this process gives the meat a sharp flavour, reminiscent of Rochefort cheese.

Walrus hide is also eaten cooked, raw or frozen, having to be cut into very small pieces in order to be swallowed. Walrus liver and heart are delicacies; the liver is eaten raw, cooked or frozen; the guts are eaten cooked and, thus prepared, are considered to be tasty. At Iglulik they sometimes cook walrus liver cut into slices, laid in boiling salt water and then placed in a cache with blubber. all sewn into a covering of walrus hide; the product thereby obtained, ageq, is considered to be very palatable.

The contents of walrus stomachs, principally half-digested mussels and snails (ipisaunaq) are eaten raw.

Seal meat is the third important food: it is almost exclusively