Part 14

No. 56757 [11] is a very handsome garment (Fig. 58). The body and sleeves are of white and brown (winter and summer) ermine skins arranged in an elegant pattern, and the hood of reindeer and mountain sheep skin. This is the only frock seen in which the hood is not fitted to the sides of the throat by curved and pointed throat pieces, after the fashion universal among the western Eskimo, from Cape Bathurst at least to Norton Sound. The pattern of the hood is shown by the diagram (Fig. 60 _a_). The middle piece is the skin of a reindeer head, the two cheek pieces and median chin piece of mountain sheep skin. When the hood is put together the lower edge of it is sewed to the neck of the body, which has the back and front of nearly the same size and shape (diagram, Fig. 60 _b_), though the back is a little longer in the skirt. There is no regular seam on the shoulders, where irregular bits of white ermine skin are pieced together so as to fit. From the armpit on each side runs a narrow strip of sheepskin between back and front. The sleeve is a long piece made of three white ermine skins put together lengthwise, doubled above, with a straight strip of sheepskin let in below, and enlarged near the body by two triangular gussets (front and back) let in between the ermine and sheepskin. The wristbands are broad pieces of sheepskin. The skirts are of white ermine skins pieced together irregularly, but the skins composing the front, back, and sleeves are split down the back of the animal and neatly cut into long rectangular pieces, with the feet and tails still attached. They are arranged in a pattern of vertical stripes, two skins fastened together end to end making a stripe, which is the same on the front and the back. There is a brown stripe down the middle, then two white stripes on each side, and a brown stripe on each edge. The hood is bound round the edge with white sheepskin and bordered with wolfskin. There are shoulder straps and a border round the skirt of edging of the usual materials, but slightly different arrangement, and tagged with small red glass beads.

The former owner of this beautiful frock (since dead) was always very elegantly dressed. His deerskin clothes were always much trimmed, and he owned an elegant frock of foxskins, alternately blue and white, with a hood of deerskin, which we did not succeed in obtaining for the collection. (The “jumper of mixed white and blue fox pelts,” seen by Dr. Kane at Ita,[N212] must have been like this.)

[Footnote N212: Second Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, p. 203.]

The woman’s frock differs from that worn by the men, in the shape of the hood and skirts, as mentioned above, and it is also slightly fitted in to the waist and made to “bag” somewhat in the back, in order to give room for carrying the child. The pattern is considerably different from that of the man’s frock, as will be seen from the description of the type specimen (the only one in the collection), No. 74041 [1791] (Fig. 61, _a_ and _b_), which is of deerskin. The hood is raised into a little point on top and bulges out into a sort of rounded pocket at the nape. This is a holiday garment, made of strips of skin from the shanks and belly of the reindeer, pieced together so as to make a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes. The pattern is shown in the diagram, Fig. 62. The sleeves are of the same pattern as those of No. 56751 [184]. The edge of the hood is bound with deerskin, hair outwards. Trimming: a strip of edging (Fig. 63) in which the light stripes are clipped white mountain sheepskin, the dark pipings brown, almost hairless, fawnskin, and the tags red worsted, is inserted in the seam between 7 on each side and 6 and 2, and a similar strip between the inner edge of 3, 2, 7, 9, and 1. A broader strip of similar insertion, fringed below with marten fur, with the flesh side out and colored red, runs along the short seam _ffff_. The seam between 9 and 7 has a narrow piping of thin brown deerskin, tagged with red worsted. A strip of edging, without tags and fringed with marten fur (Fig. 64), is inserted in the seam _gggg_. The border of the skirt is 1 inch wide (Fig. 64). The dark stripe is brown deerskin, the white, mountain sheep, and the fur, marten, with the red flesh side out. The fringes are double strips of white deerskin sewed to the inside of the last seam, about 3 inches apart. The shoulder straps are of edging like that at _g_, but have the fur sewed on so as to show the red flesh side. The hood has a fringe of wolfskin sewed to the outside of the binding. This frock measures 45 inches in the back, 32 in the front, 19 across the shoulders, and 17 at the waist. The skirts are 21 inches wide, the front 18, and the back 20 inches long. The pieces 7, 8, and 9 of the hood are white. This is an unusually handsome garment.

Deerskin garments rarely have the ornamental piecing seen in this frock. Each one of the numbered parts of the pattern is generally in one piece. The pieces 8 and 9 are almost universally white, and 7 is often so. About the same variety in material and trimming is to be found as in the men’s frocks, though deer and mountain sheep skins were the only materials seen used, and the women’s frocks are less often seen without the fringe round the hood. Plain deerskin frocks are often bordered round the skirts with a fringe cut from deerskin. The women nowadays often line the outer frock with drilling, bright calico, or even bedticking, and then wear it with this side out.

The frocks for both sexes, while made on the same general pattern as those of the other Eskimo, differ in many details from those of eastern America. For instance, the hood is not fitted in round the throat with the pointed throat pieces or fringed with wolf or wolverine skin until we reach the Eskimo of the Anderson River. Here, as shown by the specimens in the National Museum, the throat pieces are small and wide apart, and the men’s hoods only are fringed with wolverine skin. The women’s hoods are very large everywhere in the east for the better accommodation of the child, which is sometimes carried wholly in the hood.[N213]

[Footnote N213: Egede, p. 131; Crantz, i, p. 137 and Pl. III. (Greenland); Bessels, op. cit., p. 865 (Smith Sound--married women only); Parry, 2nd Voy., p. 491, and numerous illustrations, passim (Iglulik); Packard. Naturalist Vol. 19, p. 6, Pl. XXIII (Labrador), and Kumlien, l. c., p. 33 (Cumberland Gulf). See also several specimens in the National Museum from Ungava (collected by L. M. Turner) and the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (collected by MacFarlane). The hoods from the last region, while still much larger and wider than those in fashion at Point Barrow, are not so enormous as the more eastern ones. The little peak on the top of the woman’s hood at Point Barrow may be a reminiscence of the pointed hood worn by the women mentioned by Bessels, op. cit.]

The hind flap of the skirt of the woman’s frock, except in Greenland, has developed into a long narrow train reaching the ground, while the front flap is very much decreased in size (see references just quoted). The modern frock in Greenland is very short and has very small flaps (see illustrations in Rink’s Tales, etc., pp. 8 and 9), but the ancient fashion, judging from the plate in Crantz’s History of Greenland, referred to above, was much more like that worn by the western Eskimo. In the Anderson and Mackenzie regions the flaps are short and rounded and the front flap considerably the smaller. There is less difference in the general shape of the men’s frocks. The hood is generally rounded and close fitting, except in Labrador and Baffin Land, where it is pointed on the crown. The skirt is sometimes prolonged into rounded flaps and a short scallop in front, as at Iglulik and some parts of Baffin Land.[N214] Petitot[N215] gives a full description of the dress of a “chief” from the Anderson River. He calls the frock a “blouse échancrée par côté et terminée en queues arrondies par devant et par derrière.” The style of frock worn at Point Barrow is the prevalent one along the western coast of America nearly to the Kuskokwim. On this river long hoodless frocks reaching nearly or quite to the ground are worn.[N216] The frock worn in Kadiak was hoodless and long, with short sleeves and large armholes beneath these.[N217]

[Footnote N214: Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and 1st Voy., p. 283.]

[Footnote N215: Monographic, etc., p. xiv.]

[Footnote N216: Petroff, op. cit., p. 134, Pls. 4 and 5. See also specimens in the National Museum.]

[Footnote N217: Petroff, op. cit., p. 139, and Liscansky, Voy., etc., p. 194.]

The men of the Siberian Eskimo and sedentary Chukches, as at Plover Bay, wear in summer a loose straight-bottomed frock without a hood, but with a frill of long fur round the neck. The winter frock is described as having “a square hood without trimmings, but capable of being drawn, like the mouth of a bag, around the face by a string inserted in the edge.”[N218] According to Nordenskiöld,[N219] the men at Pitlekaj wear the hoodless frock summer and winter, putting on one or two separate hoods in winter. The under hood appears to be like one or two which I saw worn at Plover Bay, namely, a close-fitting nightcap of thin reindeer skin tied under the chin. The dress of the Siberian women consists of frock and baggy kneebreeches in one piece, sewed to tightfitting boots reaching to the knees.[N220]

[Footnote N218: Dall, Alaska, p. 379.]

[Footnote N219: Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.]

[Footnote N220: Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 100 and Fig. on p. 57; Dall, Alaska, p. 379 and plate opposite. I also noticed this dress at Plover Bay in 1881. Compare also Krause Brothers, Geogr. Blätter, vol. 5, No. 1, p. 5, where the dress along the coast from East Cape to Plover Bay is described as we saw it at Plover Bay.]

_Mantles._--“Circular” mantles of deerskin, fastened at the neck by a thong, and put on over the head like a poncho, are worn by the men in very cold weather over their other clothes when lounging in the open air about the village or watching at a seal hole or tending the seal nets at night. The cloaks are especially affected by the older men, who, having grown-up sons or sons-in-law, do not have to go sealing in winter, and spend a great deal of their time in bright weather chatting together out of doors. There is one specimen in the collection, No. 56760 [94] (Fig. 65). It is made of fine summer doe-reindeer skin, in three pieces, back and two sides of dark skin, sewed to a collar of white skin from the belly of the animal. For pattern see diagram (Fig. 66). The seams at _a_ are gored to make the cloak hang properly from the shoulder. The collar is in two pieces, joined in the middle, and the edge _c_ is turned over toward the hair side and “run” down in a narrow hem. The points _b_ of the collar are brought together in the middle and joined by a little strap of deerskin about an inch long, so that the edge _c_ makes a round hole for the neck. The width of the mantle is 60 inches and its depth 39. It is worn with the white flesh side out, as is indicated by the seams being sewed “over and over” on the hair side. All the mantles seen were essentially of the same pattern. The edge is sometimes cut into an ornamental fringe, and the flesh side marked with a few narrow stripes of red ocher. This garment appears to be peculiar to northwestern America. No mention is to be found of any such a thing except in Mr. MacFarlane’s MS. notes, where he speaks of a deerskin blanket “attached with a line across the shoulders in cold weather,” among the Anderson River Eskimo. We have no means at present of knowing whether such cloaks are worn by the coast natives between Point Barrow and Kotzebue Sound, but one was worn by one of the Nunata´ñmiun who were at Nuwŭk in the autumn of 1881.

_Rain-frocks._--The rain-frock (silû´ña) is made of strips of seal or walrus intestines about 3 inches broad, sewed together edge to edge. This material is light yellowish brown, translucent, very light, and quite waterproof. In shape the frock resembles a man’s frock, but the hood comes well forward and fits closely round the face. It is generally plain, but the seams are nowadays sewed with black or colored cotton for ornament. The garment is of the same shape for both sexes, but the women frequently cover the flesh side of a deerskin frock with strips of entrail sewed together vertically, thus making a garment at once waterproof and warm, which is worn alone in summer with the hair side in. These gut shirts are worn over the clothes in summer when it rains or when the wearer is working in the boats. There are no specimens in the collection.

The kaiak jacket of black sealskin, so universal in Greenland, is unknown at Point Barrow. The waterproof gut frocks are peculiar to the western Eskimo, though shirts of seal gut, worn between the inner and outer frock, are mentioned by Egede (p. 130) and Crantz[N221] as used in Greenland in their time. Ellis also[N222] says: “Some few of them [i.e., the Eskimo of Hudsons Strait] wear shifts of seals’ bladders, sewed together in pretty near the same form with those in Europe.” They have been described generally under the name _kamleïka_ (said to be a Siberian word) by all the authors who have treated of the natives of this region, Eskimo, Siberians, or Aleuts. We saw them worn by nearly all the natives at Plover Bay. One handsome one was observed trimmed on the seams with rows of little red nodules (pieces of the beak of one of the puffins) and tiny tufts of black feathers.

[Footnote N221: Vol. 1, p. 137.]

[Footnote N222: Voyage to Hudsons Bay, p. 136.]

The cotton frock, already alluded to as worn to keep the driving snow out of the furs, is a long, loose shirt reaching to about midleg, with a round hole at the neck large enough to admit the head. This is generally of bright-colored calico, but shirts of white cotton are sometimes worn when hunting on the ice or snow. Similar frocks are worn by the natives at Pitlekaj.[N223]

[Footnote N223: Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.]

ARM CLOTHING.

_Mittens._--The hands are usually protected by mittens (aitkă´ti) of different kinds of fur. The commonest kind are of deerskin, worn with the flesh side out. Of these the collection contains one pair, No. 89828 [973] (Fig. 67). They are made of thick winter reindeer skin, with the white flesh side outward, in the shape of ordinary mittens but short and not narrowed at the wrists, with the thumb short and clumsy. The seams are all sewed “over and over” on the hair side. These mittens are about 7½ inches long and 4½ broad. The free part of the thumb is only 2¼ inches long on the outer side. Such mittens are the ordinary hand covering of men, women, and children. In extreme cold weather or during winter hunting, very heavy mittens of the same shape, but gathered to a wristband, are worn. These are made of white bearskin for men and women, for children of dogskin, with the hair out. When the hand covered with such a mitten is held upon the windward side of the face in walking, the long hair affords a very efficient protection against the wind. The long stiff hair of the bearskin also makes the mitten a very convenient brush for removing snow and hoar frost from the clothes. It is even sometimes used for brushing up the floor.

In the MacFarlane collection are similar mittens from the Mackenzie region. Petitot[N224] says the Anderson River “chief” wore pualuk “mitaines en peau de morse, aussi blanches et aussi soyeuses que de belle laine.” These were probably of bearskin, as a mitten of walrus skin is not likely to be “blanche” or “soyeuse.” Gloves are worn under these as at Point Barrow. All these mittens are short in the wrist, barely meeting the frock sleeve, and leaving a crack for the cold to get in, which is partially covered by the usual wolf or wolverine skin fringe of the sleeve. I have already mentioned the common habit among the women of carrying only one mitten and drawing one arm inside of the frock.[N225] The men, except when hunting, frequently wear only one of these heavy mittens, which are called pu´alu. Waterproof mittens of black sealskin, coming well up over the forearm, were also observed, but not obtained. I do not remember ever seeing them in use.

[Footnote N224: Monographie, etc., p. xv.]

[Footnote N225: Compare Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, where a similar habit is mentioned at Iglulik.]

_Gloves._--Gloves of thin deerskin, worn with the hair in, and often elegantly ornamented, are used with full dress, especially at the dances. As already stated, the men wear such gloves under the pualu when shooting in the winter. When ready to shoot, the hunter slips off the mitten and holds it between his legs, while the glove enables him to cock the rifle and draw the trigger without touching the cold metal with his bare hands. There are two pairs of gloves in the collection. No. 89829 [974] (Fig. 68) illustrates a very common style called a´drigûdrĭn. They are made of thin reindeer skin, with the white flesh side out, and are rights and lefts. The short and rather clumsy fingers and thumbs are separate pieces from the palm, which is one straight, broad piece, doubled so as to bring the seam on the same side as the thumb. The thumbs are not alike on both hands. The outside piece of the thumb runs down to the wrist on the left glove, but is shorter on the right, the lower 2 inches of the edge seam being between the edges of the palm piece. Each finger is a single piece doubled lengthwise and sewed over the tip and down one side. The wrists are ornamented with an edging of two narrow strips of clipped mountain sheep skin, bordered with a narrow strip of wolverine fur with the reddened flesh side out. These gloves were made for sale and are not well mated, one being 8½ inches, with fingers (all of the same length) 4½ inches long, while the other is 8 inches long with fingers of 3½ inches. No. 56747 [128] is a pair of gloves made in the same way but more elaborately ornamented. There is a band of deerskin but no fringe round the wrist. The back of the hand is covered with brown deerskin, hair out, into which is inserted the square ornamental pattern in which the light stripes are white deerskin and the dark pipings the usual almost hairless fawnskin. Gloves like this type are the most common and almost universally have a fringe round the wrist. They are also usually a little longer-wristed than the mittens.

Mittens are universally employed among the Eskimo, but gloves with fingers, which, as is well known, are a much less warm covering for the hand than mittens, are very rare. They are in use at Norton Sound[N226] and in the Mackenzie district[N227], and have even been observed among the Arctic Highlanders of Smith Sound, who, however, generally wear mittens[N228]. Dr. Simpson[N229] mentions both deerskin and bearskin mittens as used at Point Barrow, but makes no reference to gloves. The natural inference from this is that the fashion of wearing gloves has been introduced since his time. It is quite probable that the introduction of firearms has favored the general adoption of gloves. The following hypothesis may be suggested as to the way the fashion reached Point Barrow: We may suppose that the Malimiut of Norton Sound got the idea directly from the Russians. They would carry the fashion to the Nunatañmiun at Kotzebue Sound, who in their turn would teach it to the Point Barrow traders at the Colville, and these would carry it on to the eastern natives.

[Footnote N226: Dall, Alaska, pp. 23, 152, and 153. He speaks of the thumb (p. 23) as “a triangular, shapeless protuberance”; a description which applies well to those in our collection.]

[Footnote N227: MacFarlane MS., and Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xv.]

[Footnote N228: Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865.]

[Footnote N229: Op. cit., p. 242.]

LEG AND FOOT CLOTHING.

_Breeches (kă´kli)._--The usual leg-covering of the men is one or two pairs of knee breeches, rather loose, but fitted to the shape of the leg. They are very low in front, barely covering the pubes, but run up much higher behind, sometimes as high as the small of the back. They are held in place by a girdle of thong round the waist, and are usually fastened below the knee, over the boots, by a drawstring. There is one pair in the collection, No. 56759 [91], Fig. 69. They are of short-haired brown reindeer skin, from the body of the animal, worn with the hair out. The waist is higher behind than in front, and each leg is slightly gathered to a band just below the knee. Pattern (see diagram, Fig. 70): There are two pieces in each leg, the inside and the outside. The spaces between the edges _e_ of the two legs is filled by the gusset, made of five pieces, which covers the pubes. The crotch is reinforced by a square patch of white deerskin sewed on the inside. The trimming consists of strips of edging. The first strip (Fig. 71) is 1½ inches wide, and runs along the front seam, inserted in the outside piece, to the knee-band, beginning 5 inches from the waist. The light strips are of clipped mountain sheepskin; the dark one of dark brown deerskin; the pipings of the thin fawn skin, and the tags of red worsted. The edges of the strip are fringed with narrow double strips of mountain sheepskin 2 inches long, put on about 1½ inches apart. A straight strip, 2 inches wide, is inserted obliquely across the outside piece from seam to seam. It is of the same materials, but differs slightly in pattern. The knee-band is of the same materials and 2½ inches deep. The length from waist to knee is 24 inches behind, 23 in front; the girth of the leg 24 inches round the thigh and 14 round the knee. These represent a common style of full-dress breeches, and are worn with a pair of trimmed boots held up by drawstrings. They are always worn with the hair out and usually over a pair of deerskin drawers. The ordinary breeches are of heavier deerskin, made perfectly plain, being usually worn alone, with the hair turned in. When a pair of under breeches is worn, however, the hair of the outer ones is turned out. Trimmed breeches are less common than trimmed frocks, as the plain breeches when new are often worn for full dress. The clean, white flesh side presents a very neat appearance. The skin of the rough seal is sometimes, but rarely, used for summer breeches, which are worn with the hair out. With this exception, breeches seem to be invariably made of deerskin. This garment is practically universal among the Eskimo and varies very little in pattern.