366 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



clipped close. The outside is painted all over with red ocher. The 

 front is nearly all in one piece, but the back is irregularly pieced and 

 gored. It is surmounted by a thick tuft of brown and white wolverine 

 fur about 5 inches long, sewed into the apex. To the middle of one side 

 at the edge is sewed .a. narrow strip of deerskin with the hair clipped 

 close, which is long enough to go under the wearer s chin and be knotted 

 into a slit close to the edge of the other side of the cap. On the front 

 edge is sewed a row of thirty-five incisor teeth of the mountain sheep 

 by a thread running through a hole drilled through the root of each. 



The series is regularly graduated, having the largest teeth in the 

 middle and the smallest on the ends. Above this is a narrow strip of 



brown deerskin running two-thirds 

 round the cap and sewed on flesh side 

 out so that the hair projects as a fringe 

 below. Above this are three ornamental 

 bands about 2 inches apart running two- 

 thirds round the cap, each fringed on 

 the lower edge with sheep teeth strung 

 as on the edge of the cap. The lower 

 row contains 54 teeth, the middle 29, 

 and the upper 31. The lowest band is 

 made of 2 strips of mountain sheepskin 

 with a narrow strip of black sealskin be- 

 tweeu them, and a narrow strip of brown 

 deerskin with the hair out; the next is 

 of coarse gray deerskin with the hair 



out; and the uppermost of brown deerskin with the flesh side out 

 The cap is old and dirty, and has been long in use. 



The custom of wearing this style of cap appears to be peculiar to 

 the northwestern Eskimo, as I find no mention for it elsewhere. It is 

 perhaps derived indirectly from the northern Indians, some of whom 

 are represented as wearing a similar headdress. 



In certain parts of the same ceremony as witnessed by Lieut. Ray 

 the dancers also wore rattle mittens, which were shaken in time to the 

 music. A pair of these were offered for sale once, but Lieut. Eay did 

 not consider them sufficiently of pure Eskimo manufacture to be worth 

 the price asked for them. They were made of sealskin and covered all 

 over the back with empty Winchester cartridge shells loosely attached 

 by a string through a hole in the bottom, so as to strike against each 

 other when the mitten was shaken. The five men who wore these mit 

 tens wore on their heads the stuffed skins of various animals, the wolf, 

 bear, fox, lynx, and dog, which they were supposed to represent. These 

 articles were never offered for sale, as they were probably too highly 

 valued. 



We collected twelve wooden masks, which we were told were worn in 

 some of these ceremonies, though none of our party ever witnessed any 



