Under every lamp
stands a sort of "save-all," consisting of a small skin basket for
catching the oil that falls over. Almost every family was in possession
of a wooden tray very much resembling those used to carry butcher's meat
in England, and of nearly the same dimensions, which we understood them
to have procured by way of Noowook. They had a number of the bowls or
cups already once or twice alluded to as being made out of the thick
root of the horn of the musk-ox. Of the smaller part of the same horn
they also form a convenient drinking-cup, sometimes turning it up
artificially about one third from the point, so as to be almost parallel
to the other part, and cutting it full of small notches as a
convenience in grasping it. These or any other vessels for drinking they
call _Imm=o=ochiuk_.
Besides the ivory knives, the men were well supplied with a much more
serviceable kind, made of iron, and called _panna_. The form of this
knife is very peculiar, being seven inches long, two and a quarter
broad, quite straight and flat, pointed at the end, and ground equally
sharp at both edges; this is firmly secured into a handle of bone or
wood about a foot long, by two or three iron rivets, and has all the
appearance of a most destructive spearhead, but is nevertheless put to
no other purpose than that of a very useful knife, which the men are
scarcely ever without, especially on their sealing excursions.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222