UUBDOCH.] LAHRETS. 145 



resembles the plugs figured by Dull from Norton Sound, 1 but lucks the 

 hole in the tip for the transverse wooden peg, which is not used at Point 

 Barrow. One youth was wearing the final size of plugs when \ve landed 

 -at the station. These were brought to a point like the tip of a walrus 

 tusk, and had exactly the appearance of the tusks of a young walrus 

 when they first protrude beyond the lip. The labrets worn at Point 

 Barrow at the present day are usually of two patterns. One is a large, 

 flat, circular disk about 1| inches in diameter, with a flat stud on the 

 back something like that of a sleevebutton, and the other a thick 

 cylindrical plug about 1 inch long, and one-luilf inch in diameter, with the 

 protruded end rounded and the other expanded into an oblong flange, 

 presenting a slightly curved surface to the gum. These plug labrets 

 are the -common fashion for everyday wear, and at the present day, 

 as in Dr. Simpson s time, are almost without exception made of stone. 

 Granite or syenite, porphyry, white marble, and sometimes coal (rarely 

 jade) are used for this purpose. 



One of the Nunataiimiuu wore a glass cruet-stopper for a labret, and 

 many natives of Utkiavwlii took the glass stopples of Worcestershire 

 sauce bottles, which were thrown away at the station, and inserted them 

 in the labret holes for everyday wear, sometimes grinding the round 

 top into an oblong stud. There is one specimen of the plug labret 

 in the collection. Labrets of all kinds are very highly prized, and it 

 was almost impossible to obtain them. 2 Though we repeatedly asked 

 for them and promised to pay a good price, genuine labrets that had 

 been worn or that were intended for actual use were very rarely offered 

 for sale, though at one time a large number of roughly made models or 

 imitations were brought in. The single specimen of the plug labret 

 (tu te) is No. 89700 [11(53] (figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, 

 PL V, Fig. 3). It is a cylindrical plug of hard, bright green stone 

 (jade or hypochlorite), 1-1 inches long and (Hi in diameter at the outer 

 end, which is rounded off, tapering slightly inward 

 and expanded at the base into an elliptical disk l-l! 

 inches long and 0-9 broad, slightly concave on the 

 surface which rests against the teeth and gum. The 

 specimen is old and of a material very unusual at 

 Point Barrow. Fig. 92, No. 89719 [110(i], from Nu- 

 wiik, may also be called a plug labret, but is of a 

 very unusual pattern, and said to be very old. 1 1 

 has an oblong stud of walrus ivory surmounted by 

 a large, transparent, slightly greenish glass bead, F &quot;- - --Labret of brads 

 on top of which is a small, translucent, sky-blue 

 bead. The beads are held on by a short wooden peg, running through 

 the perforations of the beads and a hole drilled through the ivory. 

 There is a somewhat similar labret in the Museum collection (No. 48202) 



Alaska, p. 140. 



The men whom Thomas Simpson mot at or near Harti-r Island sold their labrets, bin demanded a 

 hatobet or a dagger for a pair of them (Narrative, p. 119). 

 9 ETH 10 



