24 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



twelve years of age. Yeiy small cliildren are dressed in :i l';n\ ii-skin 

 jacket witliout attached hood; but their heads are, nevertheless, well 

 ImndU'd up in a double fawn-skin hood tluit fits the scalp closely. This 

 hood is never removed, except perchance by accident, till the child out- 

 grows it. The lower extremities are usually not clad at all. 



The children are carried on the mother's back inside her jacket. The 

 cut of the jacket is such that the child goes down as far as the mother's 

 waist, when the closeness of the jacket prevents it going any farther. 

 The hood allows the child freedom for its arms and head, but the legs 

 are cramped underneath its body, and this is i)robably one cause of 

 bow-leggt'dness and i>ossibly the shortness of the lower extremities. I 

 have seen the Eskinu) mother, with a child fast asleep in her hood, build- 

 ing a too]1ik. This work often necessitated her stooping over so much 

 as to seemingly endanger the dumping of the infant over her head on 

 the gnmnd; still, it did not seem to inconvenience the child in tlie least, 

 as it slept soundly through the whole proceeding. 



The Mmilc, or, as generally pronounced, iKniming, or boots, are prin- 

 cipally made from the skins of adult Pagoinys fceiidus, with the hair off, 

 the soles being made from the skin of Phnca harhatn. For winter wear 

 a very beautiful and serviceable l>oot is made from the skin of reindeer 

 legs sewed together lengthwise ; they are used only in dry snow, being 

 quite useless when the snow is wet. Another style of boot is to have 

 the leg of netsick skin, but with the hair on. These boots reach nearly 

 to the knee, and are kept in place by means of a string around the top, 

 and also secured by a seal-skin cord passing over the instej) and around 

 the heel. They are generally sewed with sinews tVoni reindeer; but for 

 boots the sinews from the dorsal vert<Ouie of Bchnja cniodon ;ne j (re- 

 ferred when they can be procured. 



The stocking worn next to the foot is of heavy reindeer skin, the hair 

 side next the foot; they re.u-li above the knee. Over the stocking is 

 worn a sort of slipper niade from the eider-duck. The bird is skinned 

 by making an incision on the back near oiu' wing ; through this open- 

 ing the body is removed. The skin is cleaned of the fat by the Eskimo's 

 teeth, and t lie skin farther ])rei)ared by chewing it. The tail-l'eatliers 

 are removed, and 111 is end becnmes ilie toe of the slipper, the feather 

 side being worn inside. Its u]t]»er edges are bound with some kind of 

 skin to give it additional strength, and if the entire slipitcr is covered 

 with cloth will last a long time. They are very warm ami coml'ortalile. 

 irtr?<s ///^MCJ/.v is often used for this ])nri»ose. I'or children they use Uria 

 gnjUc and lilssa triihicfi/lKs skins. Over all this is worn another slipi)er 



