14G THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



from Cape Priuce of Wales, also very old. It is surmounted by a single 

 oblong blue bead. 



I saw but one other labret made of whole beads, and this had three 

 good sized oval blue beads f in a cluster, projecting from the hole. It 

 was worn by a man from Nuwfik. This may be compared with a speci 

 men from the Mackenzie; district, No. 7714, to which two similar beads 

 are attached in the same way. The disk labret is the pattern worn on 

 full-dress occasions, seldom when working or hunting. One disk and 

 one plug labret are frequently worn. Disk labrets are made of stone, 

 sometimes of syenite or porphyry, but the most fashionable kind is made 

 of white marble, and has half of a large, blue glass bead cemented on 

 the center of the disk. These are as highly prized as they were in Dr. 

 Simpson s time, and we consequently did not succeed in procuring a 

 specimen. 



1 obtained one pair of syenite disk labrets, No. 5G71G [107] (figured in 

 Point Barrow Kept., Ethnology, PI. v, Fig. 2). Each is a flat circular 

 disk (1-7 and 1-0 inches in diameter, respectively) of rather coarse-grained 

 black and white syenite, ground very smooth, but not polished. On the 

 back of each is an elliptical stud, like that of a sleeve-button, 1-2 and 

 1-1 inches long and 0-8 and d-6 broad, respectively. 



Fig. 93, No. 2083, is one of the, blue and white disks said to come from 

 the Anderson River. This is introduced to represent those worn at 

 Point Barrow, which are of precisely the same pattern. The disk is of 

 white marble, H inches in diameter, and in the center of it is cemented, 



apparently with oil dregs, 

 half of a transparent blue 

 glass bead, three-quarters of 

 an inch in diameter, around 

 the middle of which is cut a 

 shallow groove. Similar mar 

 ble disks without the bead 



FIG. 93. Blue ami white labret from Anderson Jiiver. U C Sometimes WOl ll TheSC 



blue and white labrets appear to be worn from f ape Bathurst to the 

 Kaniag peninsula, including the Diomede Islands (see figure on p. 

 140 of Dall s Alaska). There are specimens in the Museum from the 

 Anderson River and from the north shore of Norton Sound and we 

 saw them worn by the Nunatanmiun, as well as the natives of Point 

 Barrow and Waiuwright Inlet. The beads, which are larger than those 

 sold by the American traders, were undoubtedly obtained from Siberia, 

 as Kotzebue, in 1810, found the people of the sound which bears his name 

 wearing labrets &quot;ornamented with blue glass beads.&quot; 1 The high value 

 set on these blue-bead labrets has been mentioned by Franklin 2 and T. 

 Simpson, 11 as well as by Dr. Simpson. 4 The last named seems to be the 



1 Voyage, vol. 1, p. 210. Labrets of precisely the same pattern as the one described are figured in the 

 frontispiece of this volume. (See also (, horis. Voyage I ittoresque). 

 2 2d Exp., p. 118. 

 s Narrative, p. 119. 

 4 Op. cit., p. 239. 



