140 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



natives of Smith Sound, though the custom is falling into disuse among 

 the Eskimo who have much intercourse with the whites. 1 



The simple pattern of straight, slightly diverging lines on the chin 

 seems to prevail from the Mackenzie district to Kadiak, and similar 

 chin lines appear always to form part of the more ela 

 borate patterns, sometimes extending to the arms and 

 other parts of the body, in fashion among the eastern 

 Eskimo 2 and those of Siberia, St. Lawrence Island, and 

 the Diomedes. 



FIG. 88. Woman .. 



withordinary tattoo- Fl S- 88 &amp;lt; tn)m a ketch made on the spot by the writer, 

 ing. shows the I oiut Barrow pattern. 



Painting. On great occasions, such as dances, etc., or when going 

 whaling, the face is marked with a broad streak of black lead, put on 

 with the finger, and usually running obliquely across the nose or one 

 cheek. 3 Children, when dressed up in new clothes, are also frequently 

 marked in this way. This may be compared with the ancient custom 

 among the people of Kadiak of painting their faces &quot;before festivities 

 or games and before any important undertaking, such as the crossing 

 of a wide strait or arm of the sea, the sea-otter chase, etc.&quot; 4 



HEAD ORNAMKSTS. 



Method of icearing the hair. The men and boys wear their hair combed 

 down straight over the forehead and cut off square across in front, but 

 hanging in rather long locks on the sides, so as to cover the ears. There 

 is always a small circular tonsure on the crown of the head, and a strip 

 is generally clipped down to the nape of the neck. (See Fig. 89, from 

 a sketch from life by the writer.) The natives believe that this clip 

 ping of the back of the head prevents snow blindness in the spring. 

 The people of the Mackenzie district have a different theory. &quot; La large 



Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 875 (Smith Sound) : Egede, p. 132, and Crautz, vol. 1, p. 138, already 

 given up by the Christian Greenlanders (Greenland) ; Holm. Gcogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88, still practiced 

 regularly in east Greenland; Parry, 1st Voyage, p. 282 (Baffin Laud) ; 2d Voyage, p. 498 (Iglulik); 

 Kumlien, Coutrib., p. 26 (Cumberland Gulf, aged women chiefly); Boas, &quot;Central Eskimo,&quot; p. 561; 

 Chappell, &quot;Hudson Bay,&quot; p. 60 (Hudson Strait) ; Back, Journey, etc., p. 289 (Great Fish River) ; Frank 

 lin. 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 183 (Coppermine River) ; 2d Exped., p. 126 (Point Sabine) ; Petitot. Mono- 

 graphie, etc., p. xv (Mackenzie district) ; Dall, &quot;Alaska,&quot; pp. 340, 381 (Xorton Sound, IMomede Islands, 

 and Plover Bay) ; Petroff, Report, etc., p. 139 (Kadiak) ; Lisiansky, Voyage, p. 195 (Kadiak in 1805, 

 &quot;the fair aex were also fond of tattooing tin; chin, breasts, and back, but this again is much out of 

 fashion&quot;) ; Xordenskiold. Vega, vol. 2, pp. 99, 100, 251, and 252, with figures (Siberia and St. Lawrence 

 Island); Krause brothers, Geographische Blatter, vol.5, pp. 4, f&amp;gt; (Ea-st Cape to Plover Bay); Hooper, 

 Tents, etc., p. 37, &quot; Women were tattooed on the chin in diverging lines &quot; (Plover Bay) ; Rosse, Cruise 

 of the Corwin, p. 35, fig. on p. 36 (St. Lawrence Island). 



Frobisher s account, being the earliest on record, is worth quoting: * * * The women are 

 marked on the face with blewo streekes dowue the cheekes and round about the eies &quot; (p. 621). * 

 Also, some of their women race their faces proportionally, as chinne, eheekes, and forehead, and the 

 wristes of their hands, whereupon they lay a colour, which continueth dark azurine&quot; (p. 627). Hak- 

 luyt s Voyages, etc., 1589. 



2 Holm (East Greenland) says: &quot;et Paar korte Streger paa Hagen&quot; (Geogr. Tids. vol. 8, p. 88). 



s Compare Kotzebue s Voy., vol. 3, p. 296. where Chamisso describes the natives of St. Lawrence 

 Bay, Siberia, as having large (juantities of fine graphite, with whieh they painted their faces. 



4 Petroff Report, etc., p. 139. 



