420 



THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT 



[ETH. AXX. 18 



along their borders, or striped with narrow bands of skin or rows of 

 heavy stitching. 



Figure 148 shows a wristlet from Ikogmut, on the lower Yukon, used 

 in these dances. It is made of tanned sealskin bordered by a narrow 

 strip with the hair left on. On the rest of the surface there is a series 

 of nine narrow alternating strips of yellowish-white and reddish-brown 

 tanned sealskin, most of which have along their length a row of stripes 

 of the alternating dark and white patterns formed by sewing in white 

 reindeer hairs with sinew thread. At equal intervals in the midst of 

 other bands are two broader strips of the reddish brown skin, having 

 reindeer hairs crossing their surface and gathered in the middle by the 

 sinew stitching, so that a continuous series of X-shape figures are 



formed around the entire length of the 

 wristlet. 



Figure 149, from Sabotnisky, on the 

 lower Yukon, is an armlet worn by men on 

 each arm, between the elbow and shoulder, 

 during the bladder festival. It consists 

 of a long, rounded, tapering pad made of 

 some soft material, covered with fish-skin, 

 and having the two ends provided with a 

 rawhide cord for tying it about the arm. 

 This long pad is crossed diagonally by two 

 pairs of narrow strips of skin sewed to its 

 surface. One of these strips is black and 

 made of the skin from the foot of some 

 waterfowl, probably a goose or swan. 

 The other strip is colored a dingy reddish 

 brown and was taken from some fish. 



The pairs of strips mentioned extend 

 from the inside, near the point of the pad, 

 cross over its outer portion, and turn under 

 toward the opposite point again, so that the pairs cross on the outer side 

 near the middle. Inserted in the middle of the pad and projecting back 

 from it, so as to stand out a little from the arm when worn, is a wooden 

 rod having three wooden vanes lashed at each end along its length, to 

 represent the feather vanes used for feathering the butt of an arrow, 

 which this attachment is intended to represent. 



The central shaft and one of these wooden vanes are painted red, ttie 

 other two are dull green. The red vane is crossed by a series of diag 

 onally tapering black lines, broadest along the outer edge, the other 

 two are crossed by a series of black lines extending diagonally from 

 the border of the inner edge. 



At Unalakit, on the shore of Norton sound, I obtained a pair of 

 ornamented trunks (number 48799) used in dances by the Malemut. 

 They measure about 15 inches in length and extend from the hip to 



FIG. 149 Armlet worn in dances (J). 



