DRESS OF THE WESTERN ESKIMOS. 



round the neck; and in Kotzebue Sound the pipe-bag contains two 

 pieces of dry wood, with a small bow for rotating the one rapidly 

 while firmly pressed against the other until fire is produced. In 

 the absence of these, two lumps of iron pyrites are used to strike fire 

 upon tinder, made by rubbing the down taken from the seeds of 

 plants with charcoal. The tobacco-bag, or " del-la-mai'-yu," is tho 

 constant companion of men, women, and even children, and is kepi 

 also at the inner belt. 



In summer, as their occupations are more in boats, the dress is 

 somewhat different. The feet and legs are incased in watertight 

 sealskin boots, and an outside coat of the same material, or of whale- 

 gut, covers the body ; or these are made all in one, with a drawing- 

 string round the face. The least valuable skins are also used at 

 this time, as they soon become soiled and filthy with blubber, 

 becoming quite unfit for a second season. 



It would be impossible to enumerate the varieties of dress we 

 witnessed at the grand summer dance, when, among new skin coats, 

 might be seen the clean white-cotton shirt and the greasy and 

 tattered Guernsey frock, besides others made up of odds and ends, 

 such as cotton or silk handkerchiefs procured at the ship, showing 

 that they were bound by no rule as to dress on the occasion. On 

 the head of every dancer, however, was a band supporting one, two, 

 or three large eagle's feathei s, which, together with a streak of black- 

 lead, either in a diagonal line across or down one side of the face, 

 gave them a more savage appearance than they usually exhibit. 

 Many of these head-bands were made of the skin of the head and 

 neck of some animal or bird, of which the nose or beak was retained 

 to project from the middle of the forehead. The long beak of the 

 great northern diver formed the most conspicuous of these ornaments. 

 Another head-dress, which is looked upon with superstitious regard, 

 and only worn when engaged in whaling, consists of a band of deer- 

 skin ornamented with needlework, from which are suspended around 

 the forehead and temples, in the form of a fringe, the front teeth of 

 the im'-na, a sort of deer, which has been before mentioned as 

 inhabiting the interior. 



Snow-shoes are so seldom used in the North when the drifted 

 snow presents a hard frozen surface to walk upon, that certainly 

 not half a dozen pairs were in existence al Poinl Barrow at the time 

 of our arrival, and those were of an inferior sort. Inland, and near 

 Kotzebue Sound, where trees and underwood grow, the sm.w remains 

 so soft it would be impossible to travel any distance in the winter 

 without them. The most common one is two pieces of alder, about. 

 two feel and a half long, carved towards each other at the ends. 



