V. 



llie practical sense, which is so apparent in the structure 

 of the Polar Eskimo house, reveals itself also in the skin- 

 clothing; and various features, which at first sight produce a 

 comic or incomplete impression, on closer acquaintance are 

 found to rest on practical adaptation to the climate or the ne- 

 cessities of the material. 



The separate parts of the clothing are : kamikker (boots), 

 skin- stockings, trousers, under furcoat, over furcoat and mittens. 



When the Polar Eskimos come into a winter-house or a 

 tent, where the lamps are lit and the room warm, all the clothes 

 are taken off with exception of the trousers. The women must 

 always keep the trousers on, but it is quite common for the 

 men to lie on the platform with nothing but paradisiac costume. 



The trousers of the women, which are of blue foxes' skin, 

 are but some few — about 10 — cm long and just come up 

 to the seat and the uppermost part of the thighs. As a rule 

 two skins of the blue fox are required for a pair of woman's 

 trousers. The men's trousers on the other liand are of bear's 

 skin and of considerably greater length, extending from the 

 knees to the upper part of the thighs, where the band is pulled 

 together with a string which thus comes to rest on the troch- 

 anter major of the thigh-bone on each side. For a Euro- 

 pean it would be very difficult to keep up the trousers in this 

 manner; but for the Eskimos it is customary and natural. And 

 it is also very practical, in agreement with the material and 

 the conditions. If, namely, the band of the trousers, as with 



22* 



