MURDOCH.) 



LABKETS. 



143 



Xo. 89380 [l. UO] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook pro 

 jects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round burton. Hoth of the 

 specimensare of theiisnal pattern, but very roughly made. The custom of 

 wearing earrings is very general among the, Eskimo. I need only refer 

 to the descriptions of dress and ornaments already quoted. 



Labrets. As has been stated by all travelers who have visited Point 

 Barrow since the time of Elson, all the adult males wear the labrets 

 or stud-shaped lip ornaments. The discussion of the origin and extent 

 of this habit, or even a comparison of the forms of labrets in use among 

 the Eskimo, would lead me far beyond the scope of the present work. 1 

 They are or have been worn by all the Eskimo of -western America, 

 including St. Lawrence Island and the Diomedes, from the most south 

 ern point of their range to the Macken/ie and Anderson district, and 

 were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times. 2 Kast of the Macken/ie dis 

 trict no traces of the habit are to be observed. Petitot 3 says that Cape 

 Bathurst is the most eastern point at 

 which labrets are worn. The custom of 

 wearing them at this place is perhaps 

 recent, as Dr. Armstrong, of the Invetsti- 

 &amp;lt;/tor, expressly states that he saw none 

 there in 1850. At Plover Bay, eastern 

 .Siberia, however, 1 noticed one or two 

 men with a little cross or circle tattoed 

 under each corner of the mouth, just in 

 the position of thelabret. This may be a 

 reminiscence of an ancient habit of wear 

 ing labrets, or may have been done in imi 

 tation of the people of the Diomedes and 

 the American coast. &quot; Kun-in-s. 



At Point Barrow at the present day the, lip is always pierced for two 

 labrets, one at each corner of the mouth, though one or both of them 

 are frequently left out. They told us, however, that in ancient times 

 a single labret only was worn, for which the lip was pierced directly in 

 the middle. Certain old and large-sized labrets in the collection are said 

 to have been thus worn. The incisions for the labrets appear to be made 

 about the age of puberty, though 1 knew one young man who had been 

 married for some months before he had the, operation performed. From 

 the young man s character, I fancy shyness or timidity, as suggested by 

 Dr. Simpson, 1 had something to do with the delay. Contrary to Dr. 

 Simpson s experience, I did not see a single man above the age of 18 or 

 1!) who did not wear the labrets. It seems hardly probable that ability 



1 This subject has been thoroughly treated hy Mr. W. II. Dull in his admirable paper in the Keport of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology, No. 3 for 1881- R2. pp. 67-2IKI. 



*See Dall. Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 87, and the paper just referred t. 

 * Monographic, etc., p. xxvi. 

 &quot;Op. cit.. p., 241. 



