sculping vbl n DC ~ 1 (Nfld: 1883-) for sense 1, 2 (1894-) for sense 2; for combs. in sense 3 see dolphin and rabbit dances, Inuit Land Use (1977), p. 132, DC ~ knife (1842).
1 The process of removing the skin and blubber from a seal.
1819 ANSPACH 427 Sometimes, from want of leisure, stress of weather, or some damage received by the vessel, this operation of sculping, or separating the pelt from the carcase, is performed on land. [1870] 1899 Nfld Law Reports 328 Taking measures to identify and recover them by the use of flags, by sculping, ing, cutting, marking, or such like means, had reduced them into possession. 1895 J A Folklore viii, 40 The process of separating the skin with the fat adhering to it from the rest of the carcass is called scalping. 1933 GREENE 229 The sculping and panning starts afresh, and all proceeds exactly as before but on new and untouched ice.
2 Flensing a whale.
1894 MORRIS 24 By the kindness of Mr LeMercier we were taken over to the oil house, where was moored a large whale, sixty-nine feet long, and already undergoing the process of sculping.
3 Comb sculping dance: an Eskimo dance in which two men act out the 'sculping' of a seal (P 245-72). Cp SPLIT v: come split the fish.
sculping knife: stout knife with a broad, thin, rounded blade five or six inches (12.7-15.2 cm) in length, used to remove the skin and blubber from a seal.
1842 JUKES i, 274 They 'sculp' [the seals] with a broad clasp-knife, called a sculping-knife. 1873 Maritime Mo i, 257 The sealers are armed with a'gaff,' 'sculping knife,' and 'towing-line.' . . A blow on the nose from the 'gaff' stuns or kills the young seal. Instantly the knife is at work; the skin and adhering fat are detached with amazing rapidity from the carcase ... while the fat and skin alone are carried off. 1924 ENGLAND 37 At a primitive little grindstone, a couple of hunters were already putting a keen edge to their sculping knives. 1973 MOWAT 95 Just the same, a number got 'seal finger' and had to come to me. That was some kind of infection they'd get when they nicked a finger with their bloodstained old sculping knives.
