A Description of Greenland/Chapter 12

by Hans Egede

CHAP. XII.

Of their Diet, and manner of dressing their Victuals.

Their Provision is Flesh Meat and Fish.The Greenlanders Provision and Victuals are Flesh and Fish Meat, (for the Country affords no other kind of Pro- vision) as Rain-Deer, Whales, Seals, Hares, and Rypes, or white Partridges, and all sorts of Sea Fowls. They eat their Flesh Meat sometimes raw, sometimes boiled, or dried in the Sun or Wind; but their Fish Meat is always thoroughly done, or eat them dried in the Sun or Air, as Salmon, Row-Fish, Holybut, or the small Stints, which, in the Months of May and June, they catch in great Abundance, and keep them cured and dried for Winter Provisions. They keep the Seals, which they kill in Autumn, buried under the Snow, for their Winter Stock.And whereas, in the Winter Season, it is very rare to get Seals, except in the most northern Parts, where they take them upon the Ice; so they make all the Provision of them, they can get, in the Fall, and bury them under the Snow, until the Winter comes on, when they dig them up, and eat them raw and frozen as they are. Their Drink is nothing but Water, and not, as some Writers have wrongly pretended, Train Oil; for they do not so much as eat the Fat, but only in Sauces to their dried Fish.

Drink Water cooled with Ice.Furthermore, they put great Lumps of Ice and Snow into the Water they drink, to make it the cooler for to quench their Thirst. They are, taking them in general, very hoggish and dirty in their eating and dressing of their Victuals; they never wash, cleanse, or scour the Kettles, Pots, or Dishes, in which they dress, and out of which they eat their Victuals; which, when dressed, they often lay down upon the dirty Ground, which they walk upon, instead of Tables. Very hoggish in their Eating.They will, with so great an Appetite and Greediness, feed upon the rotten and stinking Seal Flesh, that it turns the Stomach of any hungry Man, who looks upon them. They have no set Time for their Meals, but every one eats when he is hungry, except when they go to Sea, and then their chief Repast is a Supper, after they are come home in the Evening; and he, whose Supper is first ready, They invite one another.calls his Neighbours to come and partake of it, as he does again with them reciprocally; and so it goes round from one to another.

The Women eat by themselves.The Women do not eat in Company with the Men, but separately by themselves; and in the Absence of their Husbands, when gone a fishing, they, being left to themselves, invite one another, and make grand Chear. Are able to endure Hunger for a whileAnd as they eat heartily, when they can come at it; so they can as well endure Hunger, when Scarcity of Provision requires it. It has been observed, that in great Scarcity they can live upon Pieces of old Skins, upon Reets, or Sea Weeds, and other such Trash. But the Reason why they can endure Hunger better than we Foreigners, I take to be their Bodies being so squat and corpulent, their Fat yielding them Matter of Nourishment within themselves, for a while, till it be consumed.

Greenland Deserts, or last Courses of the Table.Besides the fore-mentioned Provisions, they also eat a sort of reddish Sea-Weed, and a kind of Root, which they call Tugloronet, both dressed with Fat, or Train Oil; the Dung of the Rain-Deer, taken out of the Guts, when they cleanse them; the Entrails of Partridges, and the like Out-Cast, pass for Dainties with them. They make likewise Pancakes of what they scrape off the Inside of Seal Skins, when they dress them. In the Summer they boil their Meat with Wood, which they gather in the Field, and in Winter Time over their Lamps in little Kettles, of an oval Figure, made of Brass, Copper, or Marble, which they make themselves.

Their manner of kindling Fires.For to rekindle the Fire, when extinguished, they make use of this Expedient, which shews their Ingenuity: They take a short Block of dry Firr Tree, upon which they rub another Piece of hard Wood, till by the continued Motion the Firr catches Fire. When we first came among them, they did not like to taste any of our Victuals, but now they are glad to get some of it, especially Bread and Butter, They like our Victuals, but dislike our Liquors.which they like mightily, but they do not much care for our Liquors; yet, notwithstanding, some of them, who have lived some Time among us, have learnt to drink Wine and Brandy, and never refuse it, when it is offered them. But as for Tobacco, they do not at all like it, nor can they bear the Smell or Smoak of it.