In very few places in the world will the observer receive such a vivid and immediate impression of the fundamental importance of the means of subsistence to culture as among the Eskimos and, as all know, means of subsistence in this instance means hunting and fishing. It is as if the endless struggle to wrest the daily bread from a barren and merciless country has concentrated every thought upon food and how it is to be procured to a degree only equalled by the hard struggle against the cold. If the conversation of the Eskimos does not turn upon new winter clothing, it is usually about the hunt and the contents of the meat caches. The sense for the purely expedient, without any tribute to considerations of æsthetics, which almost wholly stamps the material culture of the Central Eskimos, must presumably to some extent be regarded in the light of their unusually hard struggle for existence.
The worst enemy of the Caribou Eskimos in this struggle is the barrenness of the country itself. The vegetation is no positive obstacle to them, and really noxious animals are few. Originally, the wolverine. and wolf were hunted mostly in order to exterminate them, but now for the purpose of selling the skins to the whites as well. The poverty of the country has taught the Eskimos to treat food with respect; it must not be wasted (see p. 101) and there are many religious, and especially magical, precepts for ensuring good hunting. For instance, widows and women who have lost small children must not look at any game or mention it by name for a whole year, but only by circumlocution. When a caribou has been shot, the hunter must place a small piece of meat and fat under a stone close by as an offering to the soul of the animal. When later on the caribou is brought into the camp the hunter's wife (?) must touch it with her hand, a similar greeting to that used towards visitors (communicated by Mgr. Turquetil). I have seen the same thing done in the case of a bearded seal. If the seal brought home is a fjord seal, she must pour a little fresh water over its nose and belly as a drink for its soul; for as seals live in salt water they are supposed to suffer from thirst.
