MURDOCH.) 



BOOTS. 



135 



comes across the ball of the foot, then through the hinder loops, and 

 are crossed above the heel, carried once or twice around the ankle, and 

 tied in front. 



Such boots are universally worn 

 in summer. The men s boots are 

 usually left with an irregular edge 

 at the top, and are held up by the 

 breeches, while the women s usually 

 have white bands around the tops 

 with drawstrings. Half-boots of 

 the same material, reaching to mid- 

 leg, without drawstrings, or shoes 

 reaching just above the ankle with 

 a string round the top are some 

 times worn over the deerskin boots. 

 Similar shoes of deerskin afe some 

 times worn in place of boots. 



Waterproof boots of black seal 

 skin are universally employed by 

 Eskimo and by the Aleuts. These 

 boots stand water for a long time 

 without getting wet through, but 

 when they become wet they must 

 be turned inside out and dried very 

 slowly to prevent them from shrink 

 ing, and worked soft with a stone 

 skin-dressing tool or the teeth. Th 

 sun. When the black epidermis wears off this leather is no longer 

 waterproof, so that the women are always on the watch for white spots, 

 which are mended with water-tight patches as soon as possible. 



In the early spring, before it thaws enough to render waterproof boots 



necessary, the surface of the snow becomes 

 very smooth and slippery. To enable them 

 selves to walk on this surface without fall 

 ing, the natives make a kind of &quot;creeper&quot; 

 out of strips of sealskin. These are doubled 

 lengthwise, and generally bent into a half- 

 nioon or horseshoe shape, with the folded 

 edges on the outside of the curve, sewed on the toe and heel of the 

 sealskin sole, as represented in Fig. 82. 



I AHTS OK DRKSS. 



Belt* (tapsi). The belt which is used to hold up the pantaloons or 

 breeches is simply a stout strip of skin tied round the waist. The gir 

 dle, which is always worn outside of the frock, except when the weather 

 is warm or the wearer heated by exercise, is very often a similar strap 

 of deerskin, or perhaps wolfskin. Often, however, and especially for 



KIG. 81. W 



Iskin boot. 



s waterpi 

 natives prefer to dry them in the 



FIG. 82. Sketch of toe-creeper 

 boot sole. 



