Part 16
No. 89544 [1419] (Fig. 83_a_) has been chosen as the type of a man’s belt. It is 35 inches long and 1 inch broad, and made of the shafts of feathers woven into an elegant pattern, bordered on the edges with deerskin, and terminating in a leather loop at one end and a braided string at the other. The loop is a flat piece of skin of the bearded seal, in which is cut a large oblong eye. The weaving begins at the square end of the loop. The warp consists of nine long strands sewed through the inner face of the leather so as to come out on the hinder edge. The middle strand is of stout sinew braid, ending in a knot on the inner side of the leather. The four on each side are of fine cotton twine or stout thread, each two being one continuous thread passing through the leather and out again. The woof is the shafts of small feathers regularly woven, the first strand woven over and under, ending over the warp, the next under and over, ending under the warp, and so on alternately, each strand extending about one-fourth inch beyond the outer warp-strand on each side. This makes the pattern shown in Fig. 83_b_, a long stitch on each side, three very short ones on each side of the middle, and a slightly longer one in the middle. The strips of feathers forming the woof are not joined together, but one strip is woven in as far as it will go, ending always on the inner side of the belt, a new strip beginning where the other ends. The shafts of black feathers, with a few of the barbs attached, are woven into the woof at tolerably regular intervals. Each black strand starts under the first strand of the warp, making the outer and inner of the three short stitches on each side black. This produces a checkered pattern along the middle of the belt (see enlarged section, Fig. 83_b_). The woof strands are driven home tightly and their ends are secured on each side by a double thread of cotton sewed into the corner of the leather loop. One thread runs along the outside of the belt and the other along the inside, passing between the ends of the feathers about every ten feathers and making a turn round the outer thread, as in Fig. 84. The edges of the belt are trimmed off even and bound with a narrow strip of deerskin with the flesh side out and painted red. The binding of the upper edge makes an irregular loose lining on the inside of the belt. Across the end of the belt is sewed on each side a narrow strip of sealskin, and the ends of the warp are gathered into a three-ply braid 16 inches long, which is used to fasten the belt by drawing it through the loop and knotting it. An ancient bone spearhead is attached to the belt as an amulet by a stout strap.
No. 89543 [1420] is a similar belt worn in precisely the same way, but with the black feathers introduced in a different pattern. The weaving is done by hand with the help of some little tools, to be described under implements for making and working fiber. Belts of this style appear to be peculiar to the Point Barrow region. Indeed, girdles of any kind are seldom worn over the jacket by the men in the eastern regions.
The women never wear anything except a simple strip of skin or the wolverine belt mentioned above. No. 89542 [1421], Fig. 85, is one of these. It is made of nine strips of dark brown skin from round the foot of the wolverine, sewed together end to end. Each strip, except the one at the end, has a claw at the lower corner (on some of the strips the bit of skin bearing the claws is pieced in) so that there are eight nearly equidistant claws making a fringe round the lower edge of the belt. There is a hole at each end into which is half-hitched the end of a narrow strip of deerskin about 8 inches long. These strings serve to tie the girdle. This belt is 33 inches long and 1½ inches wide, and has been worn so long that the inside is very dirty. Such belts are very valuable and highly prized, and are worn exclusively by the women.
Fig. 86, No. 89718 [1055], is an object which is quite uncommon and seldom if ever now seen in use. It is of walrus ivory, very old and yellow. It served as a belt-fastener (tápsĭgɐ). I have seen a brass clock wheel used on a girl’s belt for the same purpose. This specimen is very old, neatly made, and polished smooth, probably from long use.
_Ornaments._--In addition to the trimmings above described there are certain ornamental appendages which belong to the dress, but can not be considered as essential parts of any garments, like the trimmings. For instance, nearly every male in the two villages wears dangling from his back between the shoulders an ermine skin either brown or white, or an eagle’s feather, which is transferred to the new garment when the old one is worn out. This is perhaps an amulet as well as an ornament, as Dr. Simpson states.[N237] An eagle’s feather is often worn on the outside of the hood, pendant from the crown of the head. Attached to the belt are various amulets (to be described under the head of “Religion”) and at the back always the tail of an animal, usually a wolverine’s. Very seldom a wolf’s tail is worn, but nearly all, even the boys, have wolverine tails, which are always saved for this purpose and used for no other. This habit among the Eskimo of western America of wearing a tail at the girdle has been noticed by many travelers, and prevails at least as far as the Anderson River, since Petitot,[N238] in describing the dress of the Anderson River “chief,” says: “par derrière il portait aux reins une queue épaisse et ondoyante de renard noir.” According to him[N239] it is the _women_ of that region, who wear, “à titre de talismans, des defroques empaillées de corbeau, de faucon, ou d’hermine.” The custom of wearing an ermine skin on the jacket was observed by Dr. Armstrong of the _Investigator_ at Cape Bathurst.[N240]
[Footnote N237: Op. cit., p. 243.]
[Footnote N238: Monographie, etc., p. xiv.]
[Footnote N239: Ibid.]
[Footnote N240: Personal Narrative, p. 176.]
PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
SKIN ORNAMENTATION.
_Tattooing._--The custom of tattooing is almost universal among the women, but the marks are confined almost exclusively to the chin and form a very simple pattern. This consists of one, three, five, or perhaps as many as seven vertical lines from the under lip to the tip of the chin, slightly radiating when there are more than one. When there is a single line, which is rather rare, it is generally broad, and the middle line is sometimes broader than the others. The women as a rule are not tattooed until they reach a marriageable age, though there were a few little girls in the two villages who had a single line on the chin. I remember seeing but one married woman in either village who was not tattooed, and she had come from a distant settlement, from Point Hope, as well as we could understand.
Tattooing on a man is a mark of distinction. Those men who are, or have been, captains of whaling umiaks that have taken whales have marks to indicate this tattooed somewhere on their persons, sometimes forming a definite tally. For instance, Añoru had a broad band across each cheek from the corners of the mouth (Fig. 87, from a sketch by the writer), made up of many indistinct lines, which was said to indicate “many whales.” Amaiyuna had the “flukes” of seven whales in a line across his chest, and Mû´ñialu had a couple of small marks on one forearm. Niăksára, the wife of Añoru, also had a little mark tattooed in each corner of her mouth, which she said were “whale marks,” indicating that she was the wife of a successful whaleman. Such marks, according to Petitot (Monographie, etc., p. xv) are a part of the usual pattern in the Mackenzie district--“deux traits aux commissures de la bouche.” One or two men at Nuwŭk had each a narrow line across the face, over the bridge of the nose, which were probably also “whale marks,” though we never could get a definite answer concerning them.[N241]
[Footnote N241: Compare the custom observed by H.M.S. _Investigator_, at Cape Bathurst, where, according to McClure (Discovery of the Northwest Passage, p. 93), a successful harpooner has a blue line drawn across his face over the bridge of the nose; or, according to Armstrong (Personal Narrative, p. 176), he has a line tattooed from the inner angle of the eye across the cheek, a new one being added for every whale he strikes. Petitot, however (Monographie, etc., p. xxv), says that in this region whales are “scored” by tattooing crosses on the shoulder, and that a murderer is marked across the nose with a couple of horizontal lines. It is interesting to note in this connection that one of the “striped” men at Nuwŭk told us that he had killed a man. According to Holm, at Angmagsalik (east Greenland), “Mændene ere kun undtagelsvis tatoverede og da kun med enkelte mindre Streger paa Arme og Haandled, for at kunne harpunere godt” (Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88). Compare also Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 37, “Men only make a permanent mark on the face for an act of prowess, such as killing a bear, capturing a whale, etc.;” and Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 449, where some of the men at Iglulik are said to be tattooed on the back of the hand, as a souvenir of some distant or deceased person.]
The tattooing is done with a needle and thread, smeared with soot or gunpowder, giving a peculiar pitted appearance to the lines. It is rather a painful operation, producing considerable inflammation and swelling, which lasts several days. The practice of tattooing the women is almost universal among the Eskimo, from Greenland to Kadiak, including the Eskimo of Siberia, the only exception being the natives of Smith Sound, though the custom is falling into disuse among the Eskimo who have much intercourse with the whites.[N242]
[Footnote N242: Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 875 (Smith Sound); Egede, p. 132, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138, already given up by the Christian Greenlanders (Greenland); Holm. Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88, still practiced regularly in east Greenland; Parry, 1st Voyage, p. 282 (Baffin Land); 2d Voyage, p. 498 (Iglulik); Kumlien, Contrib., p. 26 (Cumberland Gulf, aged women chiefly); Boas, “Central Eskimo,” p. 561; Chappell, “Hudson Bay,” p. 60 (Hudson Strait); Back, Journey, etc., p. 289 (Great Fish River); Franklin, 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 183 (Coppermine River); 2d Exped., p. 126 (Point Sabine); Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xv (Mackenzie district); Dall, “Alaska,” pp. 140, 381 (Norton Sound, Diomede Islands, and Plover Bay); Petroff, Report, etc., p. 139 (Kadiak); Lisiansky, Voyage, p. 195 (Kadiak in 1805, “the fair sex were also fond of tattooing the chin, breasts, and back, but this again is much out of fashion”); Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 99, 100, 251, and 252, with figures (Siberia and St. Lawrence Island); Krause brothers, Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pp. 4, 5 (East Cape to Plover Bay); Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 37, “Women were tattooed on the chin in diverging lines” (Plover Bay); Rosse, Cruise of the _Corwin_, p. 35, fig. on p. 36 (St. Lawrence Island).
Frobisher’s account, being the earliest on record, is worth quoting: “* * * The women are marked on the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes and round about the eies” (p. 621). * * * “Also, some of their women race their faces proportionally, as chinne, cheekes, and forehead, and the wristes of their hands, whereupon they lay a colour, which continueth dark azurine” (p. 627). Hakluyt’s Voyages, etc., 1589.]
The simple pattern of straight, slightly diverging lines on the chin seems to prevail from the Mackenzie district to Kadiak, and similar chin lines appear always to form part of the more elaborate patterns, sometimes extending to the arms and other parts of the body, in fashion among the eastern Eskimo[N243] and those of Siberia, St. Lawrence Island, and the Diomedes.
[Footnote N243: Holm (East Greenland) says: “et Paar korte Streger paa Hagen” (Geogr. Tids. vol. 8, p. 88).]
Fig. 88, from a sketch made on the spot by the writer, shows the Point Barrow pattern.
_Painting._--On great occasions, such as dances, etc., or when going whaling, the face is marked with a broad streak of black lead, put on with the finger, and usually running obliquely across the nose or one cheek.[N244] Children, when dressed up in new clothes, are also frequently marked in this way. This may be compared with the ancient custom among the people of Kadiak of painting their faces “before festivities or games and before any important undertaking, such as the crossing of a wide strait or arm of the sea, the sea-otter chase, etc.”[N245]
[Footnote N244: Compare Kotzebue’s Voy., vol. 3, p. 296, where Chamisso describes the natives of St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, as having large quantities of fine graphite, with which they painted their faces.]
[Footnote N245: Petroff Report, etc., p. 139.]
HEAD ORNAMENTS.
_Method of wearing the hair._--The men and boys wear their hair combed down straight over the forehead and cut off square across in front, but hanging in rather long locks on the sides, so as to cover the ears. There is always a small circular tonsure on the crown of the head, and a strip is generally clipped down to the nape of the neck. (See Fig. 89, from a sketch from life by the writer.) The natives believe that this clipping of the back of the head prevents snow blindness in the spring. The people of the Mackenzie district have a different theory. “La large tonsure que portent nos Tchiglit a pour but, m’ont-ils dit, de permettre au soleil de rechauffer leur cerveau et de transmettre par ce moyen sa bienfaisante chaleur à leur cœur pour les faire vivre.”[N246] Some of the Nunatañmiun and one man from Kilauwĭtaiwĭñ that we saw wore their front hair long, parted in the middle, and confined by a narrow fillet of leather round the brow. The hair on the tonsure is not always kept clipped very close, but sometimes allowed to grow as much as an inch long, which probably led Hooper to believe that the tonsure was not common at Point Barrow.[N247] It is universal at the present day, as it was in Dr. Simpson’s time.[N248] The western Eskimo generally crop or shave the crown of the head, while those of the east allow their hair to grow pretty long, sometimes clipping it on the forehead. The practice of clipping the crown appears to be general in the Mackenzie district,[N249] and was occasionally observed at Iglulik by Capt. Parry (2d Voy., p. 493). The natives of St. Lawrence Island and the Siberian coast carry this custom to an extreme, clipping the whole crown, so as to leave only a fringe round the head.[N250] The women dress their hair in the fashion common to all the Eskimo except the Greenlanders and the people about the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers, where the women bring the hair up from behind into a sort of high top-knot, with the addition in the latter district of large bows or pigtails on the sides.[N251] The hair is parted in the middle from the forehead to the nape of the neck, and gathered into a club on each side behind the ear. The club is either simply braided or without further dressing twisted and lengthened out with strips of leather, and wound spirally for its whole length with a long string of small beads of various colors, a large flat brass button being stuck into the hair above each club. The wife of the captain of a whaling umiak wears a strip of wolfskin in place of the string of beads when the boat is “in commission” (as Capt. Herendeen observed).
[Footnote N246: Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xxxi.]
[Footnote N247: Tents, etc., p. 225.]
[Footnote N248: Op. cit., p. 238.]
[Footnote N249: Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xxxi. See also Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 118.]
[Footnote N250: See also Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 9 and 252, and figures passim, especially pp. 84 and 85; Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 27; and Dall, Alaska, p. 381.]
[Footnote N251: See Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp. Many illustrations, passim, Smith Sound; Egede, p. 132, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 128, Greenland; Brodbeck, “Nach Osten,” p. 23, and Holm, Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 90, East Greenland; Frobisher, in Hakluyt, Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 627, Baffin Land; Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and Lyon, Journal, p. 230, Iglulik; Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xxix, Mackenzie district; Hooper, Tents, etc., pp. 257, Icy Reef, and 347, Maitland Id.; Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 119, Point Sabine; Dall, Alaska, pp. 140 and 381, Norton Sound and Plover Bay. See also references to Nordenskiöld, given above, and Krause Bros., Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 5.]
Some of the little girls wear their hair cut short behind. The hair is not arranged every day. Both sexes are rather tidy about arranging their hair, but there is much difference in this between individuals. The marrow of the reindeer is sometimes used for pomatum. Baldness in either sex is rare. I do not remember ever seeing a bald woman, and there were only two bald men at the two villages. Neither of these men was very old.
_Head-bands._--Some of the men and boys wear across the forehead a string of large blue glass beads, sometimes sewed on a strip of deerskin. Occasionally, also a fillet is worn made of the skin of the head of a fox or a dog, with the nose coming in the middle of the forehead. Such head-dresses are by no means common and seem to be highly prized, as they were never offered for sale. MacFarlane (MS.) speaks of a similar head-dress worn at the Anderson River, “generally made of the skin of the fore part of the head skins of wolves, wolverines, and marmots. Very often, however, a string of beads is made use of instead.” Another style of head-dress is the badge of a whaleman, and is worn only when whaling (and, I believe, at the ceremonies in the spring preparatory to the whaling). This seems to be very highly prized, and is, perhaps, “looked upon with superstitious regard.”[N252] None were ever offered for sale and we had only two or three opportunities of seeing it. It consists of a broad fillet of mountain-sheep skin, with pendants of flint, jasper, or crystal, rudely flaked into the shape of a whale (see under “Amulets,” where specimens are described and figured), one in the middle of the brow and one over each ear. Some of them are also fringed with the incisor teeth of the mountain sheep attached by means of a small hole drilled through the end of the root, as on the dancing cap (see under “Games and Pastimes”). The captain and harpooner of a whaling crew which I saw starting out in the spring of 1882 each wore one of these fillets. The harpooner’s had only the whale pendants, but the captain’s was also fringed with teeth. This ornament closely resembles the fillet fringed with deer’s teeth, observed by Capt. Parry at Iglulik,[N253] which “was understood to be worn on the head by men, though we did not learn on what occasions.”
[Footnote N252: See Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 243. Compare also Brodbeck, “Nach Osten” (p. 23). Speaking of “ein Kopf- oder Stirnband,” he says: “Vielleicht gilt es ihnen als eine Art von Zauberschützmittel, denn es ist um kein Geld zu haben. Drängt man sie, so sagen sie wohl, es sei nicht ihr eigen.”]
[Footnote N253: Second Voy., p. 498 and Fig. 7, pl. opposite p. 548.]
_Earrings (nógolu)._--Nearly all the women and girls perforate the lobes of the ears and wear earrings. The commonest pattern is a little hook of ivory to which are attached pendants, short strings of beads, etc. Large, oblong, dark-blue beads and bugles are specially desired for this purpose. Cheap brass or “brummagem” earrings are sometimes worn nowadays. The fashion in earrings seems to have changed somewhat since Dr. Simpson’s time, as I do not remember ever having seen the long strings of beads hanging across the breast or looped up behind as he describes them.[N254] At present, one earring is much more frequently worn than a pair. There are in the collection two pairs of the ivory hooks for earrings, which, though made for sale, are of the ordinary pattern. Of these No. 89387 [1340] (Fig. 90) will serve as the type. They are of coarse, white walrus ivory.
[Footnote N254: Op. cit., p. 211.]
No. 89386 [1340] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook projects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round button. Both of the specimens are of the usual pattern, but very roughly made. The custom of wearing earrings is very general among the Eskimo. I need only refer to the descriptions of dress and ornaments already quoted.
_Labrets._--As has been stated by all travelers who have visited Point Barrow since the time of Elson, all the adult males wear the labrets or stud-shaped lip ornaments. The discussion of the origin and extent of this habit, or even a comparison of the forms of labrets in use among the Eskimo, would lead me far beyond the scope of the present work.[N255] They are or have been worn by all the Eskimo of western America, including St. Lawrence Island and the Diomedes, from the most southern point of their range to the Mackenzie and Anderson district, and were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times.[N256] East of the Mackenzie district no traces of the habit are to be observed. Petitot[N257] says that Cape Bathurst is the most eastern point at which labrets are worn. The custom of wearing them at this place is perhaps recent, as Dr. Armstrong, of the _Investigator_, expressly states that he saw none there in 1850. At Plover Bay, eastern Siberia, however, I noticed one or two men with a little cross or circle tattooed under each corner of the mouth, just in the position of the labret. This may be a reminiscence of an ancient habit of wearing labrets, or may have been done in imitation of the people of the Diomedes and the American coast.
[Footnote N255: This subject has been thoroughly treated by Mr. W. H. Dall in his admirable paper in the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, No. 3 for 1881-’82, pp. 67-203.]
[Footnote N256: See Dall, Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 87, and the paper just referred to.]
[Footnote N257: Monographie, etc., p. xxvi.]