43 



The skin should be rolled up tight after smoking and put 

 away for two hours. It is then unrolled and hung up to dry by 

 the fire. Great care must be taken that no parts of the skin 

 touch during smoking, else a whitish spot is left which spoils its 

 general appearance. 



Where the present Eskimo are able to obtain Indian dressed 

 deerskins from the Hudson's Bay Company posts, they do little 

 such work themselves ; where they are not so located, we find them 

 imitating Indian methods, as described above. 



DRESSING AND MAKING OF SEALSKIN CLOTHING. 



Boots (ka'mik). 



In making sealskin boots, the Labrador Eskimo use six 

 instruments: (1), the mu'bcd(3ik, a stick flat on one side and round 

 on the other, on which the skin is laid; (2), the u"lu', or woman's 

 knife, which is used to scrape off the fat and membrane; (3), the 

 acdmau'tuk, a flat board, on which the oval forms of the boot are 

 cut out; (4) the ti'cdkut, or scraper, used on the leg portions to 

 make them white by, scraping off the dark outer skin; (5) the 

 kalutuk, or boot creaser, of ivory or iron, which is used to smooth 

 down the gathers in the toe of the boot; and (6), the a'xkau'dlut, 

 or boot stretcher, a form on which the newly made boot is placed. 

 The last instrument is also used in reshaping wet boots or old 

 boots which have run over on the edge. 



After selecting a sealskin, it is laid on the mu'bcdftik and 

 cleaned of fat and "film" (inside skin) with the u"hr. The skin 

 is then turned over, and the hair scraped off on the other side, 

 always pushing the knife against the grain. It is then hung up 

 to dry, or, if , white boots are desired, is rolled up damp and left 

 for a few days, and then lashed in a frame and left out in cold 

 weather to "frost-dry." The extreme cold turns the usually 

 yellowish skin a beautiful white. 



When the skin is sufficiently dried, it is taken down, laid on 

 the acdmau'tik, and the oval forms of the soles are cut out (see 

 Figure 1, No. 4). The bottoms are soaked and the outside edge 

 is pared off. The leg portions and the tongue or instep are next 

 cut out. Sometimes the leg and instep are cut in one piece. 



