NELSON] LAB RETS 45 



wearing labrets is almost ..ost among the Eskimo of the Asiatic coast 

 and of St Lawrence island. One man seen at the latter point had a 

 circle tattooed on each side of his chin to represent these ornaments 

 (figure 15 b). Some of the natives on Mechigme bay, just south of East 

 cape, Siberia, had labret holes in their lips. The Eskimo of the Yukon 

 and the Kuskokwim who live nearest the Tiune have also generally 

 abandoned the practice of wearing labrets, and the custom is becoming 

 obsolete at other points where there is constant intercourse with the 

 whites. 



During my residence at St Michael it was rather uncommon to 

 see very young men among the Unalit with their lips pierced, and 

 throughout that time I do not think a single boy among them had been 

 thus deformed. Many of the old men also have ceased to wear labrets, 

 although the incisions made for them in youth still remain. 



Among the Eskimo of Bering strait and northward, where contact 

 with the whites has been irregular, labret wearing is still in full force. 

 Increasing intercourse with civilized people makes it only a matter of 

 time for this custom to become entirely obsolete. In the district south 

 ward from the Yukon mouth labrets were not universally worn among 

 the men, as is the case in the country northward from Bering strait, 

 and in every village some of the men and many women were found 

 without them. The labrets of the women are of a curious sickle shape, 

 but vary in detail of arrangement, as shown by the accompanying illus 

 trations. Most of them are made with holes in the lower border for 

 the attachment of short strings of beads. The women who wore 

 labrets had the under lip pierced with one or two holes just over the 

 middle of the chin. 



The use of these labrets, in the country visited by me, seemed to be 

 limited to the district lying between Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers 

 and Nunivak island. Elsewhere I did not see labrets of any kind used 

 by women. In the villages of Askinuk, Kushunuk, and other places 

 in that region the common form was a small, flattened, sickle-shape 

 piece of ivory, with a broad, flattened base for resting against the 

 teeth, and the outer tip brought down to a thin, flat point. Of this 

 style there are some variations, the most common of which is to have 

 the two ordinary sickle-shape labrets joined by a crosspiece of ivory 

 cut from the same piece and uniting the two sickle-shape parts just on 

 the outer side of the lip. 



Another form was to join the inner ends of the labrets so that the 

 portion resting against the teeth united the bases of the two sickle-shape 

 points. In a labret (plate xxn, 2) from Kofiigunugumut the piece 

 joining the two sickle-shape points is flattened vertically. In another 

 specimen (plate xxn, 3), from Kulwoguwigumut, this crosspiece, uniting 

 the bases of the two projections, is flattened horizontally. In another 

 (plate xxn, 4) from the lower Kuskokwim, the two sickle-shape projec 

 tions unite exteriorly to the lip so that a single orifice in the middle of 

 the lower lip serves for the insertion of the stem. 



