250 | WALRUS.

the fat furnishes them with oil for lamp-light, chamber
and kitchen fire; and whoever sees their habitations
presently finds that, even if they had the superfiuity of
wood, it would not be of use; they can use nothing but
oil in them. They also mollify their dry food, mostly
fish, with oil; and, finally, they barter it for all kinds of
necessaries with the factor. They can sew better with
fibres of the seals sinews than with thread or silk; of
the skins of the entrails they make’ window curtains for
their tents, and shirts; part of the bladder they ‘use as
a float to their harpoons, and they make oil-flasks of
the stomach. Neither is the blood wasted, but is boiled
up with other ingredients, and eaten as soup.

Of the skin of the seal they stand in the greatest
need, because they must cover with seal skins both the
large and small boats in which they travel and seek
provisions. They must also cut out of them their thongs
and straps, and cover their tents with them, without
which they could not subsist in summer. No man,
therefore, can pass for a right Greenlander who cannot
catch seals. This is the ultimate end they aspire at in
all their device and labour from their childhood up.”

To the Greenlander, then, the sea is his pasturage,
where his flocks and herds are fed—the sea is his
hunting-domain, where in his light kajak, he skims
over the waves.