Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/66

remainder of the skin, to be used for thongs, was divided into six portions according to the number present when the catch made. Walruses are often flensed in this way: the bones are cut out and the hide is cut longitudinally into three pieces, which are sewn round with a piece of skin with the blubber on. Long flensed pieces of this kind, ungerdlertut, are easier to carry, especially over pack ice, and easier to cut or chop for dog feed as there is no bone in them; dogs are often harnessed to a piece and it is dragged home.

At Ponds Inlet, narwhals are flensed in the following manner: the skin is taken off in two whole sides, from back to belly. First the small fin is cut out of the back, the fore flippers are cut out, and the tail is cut off three or four vertebrae behind the anus. Matak (the hide) and the blubber hanging to it are peeled off; the meat is cut out, beginning at transversi and cutting across the muscle fibres. The flesh under the spine is cut away from both sides and the breast taken out in one piece lengthwise. The head is then cut off. A hole is cut in the fat under the tusks to drain the liquid oil from the head.

Caribou hunting is the favourite occupation of the Iglulik Eskimos. At the cry of "tugto" all other work is discontinued and the men rush off to pursue the caribou, often for days; if a journey is in progress. a halt is made immediately when caribou, or merely their fresh tracks are seen, no matter what the object of the journey may be and whether there is plenty of food or not.

Caribou hunting is pursued in all seasons whenever there is an opportunity. But it is particularly in summer and autumn that it is of importance; the skins are then still short-haired and useful for clothing. All the younger men then make their way into the country to hunt, whilst the older men usually — though not always — remain at some good hunting ground or other at the coast or at a salmon lake. But it often happens that caribou hunting extends over the most of winter and not until March-April do the Eskimos move down to the coast.

Nowadays the caribou is always hunted with the gun. In summer and autumn the Eskimos rove about in the interior, following the caribou herds. Often it is one family alone, sometimes two or three families together, rarely more; they travel by means of pack-dogs and only the most necessary things are taken: tent, sleeping rugs, the least quantity of clothing possible, especially boots, cooking pots, a small lamp — most often of tin nowadays — blubber for illumination, guns, ammunition, flensing knives, the tool-box with its contents