112 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. 



woman s frock. On her legs a woman wears a pair of tight-fitting 

 deerskin pantaloons with the hair next the skin, and outside of these a 

 similar pair made of the skins of deer legs, with the hair out, and having 

 soles of sealskin, but no anklestrings. The outer pantaloons are usually 

 laid aside in spring, and waterproof boots like the men s, but fastened 

 below the knee with drawstrings, are worn over the under pantaloons. 

 In the summer pantaloons wholly of waterproof sealskin are often put 

 on. The women s pantaloons, like the men s breeches, are fastened with 

 a girdle just .above the hips. It appears that they do not stay up very 

 well, as the women are continually &quot; hitching&quot; them up and tightening 

 their girdles. 



Until they reach manhood the boys wear pantaloons like the women, 

 but their jackets are cut just like those of the men. The dress of the 

 girls is a complete miniature of that of the women, even to the pocket 

 for the child s head. Those who are well-to-do generally own several 

 complete suits of clothes, and present a neat appearance when not en 

 gaged in dirty work. The poorer ones wear one suit on all occasions 

 till it becomes shabby. New clothes are seldom put on till winter. 



The outer frock is not often worn in the iglu, being usually taken off 

 before entering the room, and the under one is generally dispensed with- 

 Men habitually leave off their boots in the house, and rarely their 

 stockings and breeches, retaining only a pair of thin deerskin drawers. 

 This custom of stripping in the house has been noticed among all Es 

 kimos whose habits have been described, from Greenland to Siberia. 

 The natives are slow to adopt any modifications in the style of dress, 

 the excellence and convenience of which has been so frequently com 

 mented upon that it is unnecessary to refer to it. One or two youths 

 learned from association with us the convenience of pockets, and accord 

 ingly had &quot;patch pockets&quot; of cloth sewed on the outside of the skirt of 

 the inner frock, and one young man in 1883 wore a pair of sealskin 

 hip boots, evidently copies from our india-rubber wading boots. I now 

 proceed to the description of the clothing in detail. 



Head cloth intj. The only head covering usually worn is the hood of 

 the frock, which reaches to about the middle of the head, the front 

 being covered by the hair. Women who are carrying children in the 

 jacket sometimes wrap the head in a cloth. (I have an indistinct rec 

 ollection of once seeing a woman with a deerskin hood, but was too 

 busy at the time to make a note or sketch of it.) One man at Utki- 

 avwlfi (Nagawau ra, now deceased), who was quite bald on the forehead, 

 used to protect the front of his head with a sort of false front of deer 

 skin, tied round like a fillet. No specimens of any of these articles 

 were obtained. Fancy conical caps are worn in the dances and theat 

 rical performances, but these belong more properly under the head of 

 Games and Pastimes (where they will be described) than under that of 

 Clothing. 



