134 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



She partakes, somewhat mellowed down, of the same characteristics 

 which we have just sketched in the face and form of her husband. 

 As they live to-day, they are married and sustain this relation, shel- 

 tered in their own hut or "barrabkie." They have long, long ago 

 ceased to dress themselves in skins, and now appear in store clothes 

 and cotton gowns, retaining, however, their characteristic water- 

 proof garment known as the "kamlayka" and the odd boots known 

 as "tarbosars," in which they are always enveloped in wet weather, 

 or whenever they venture out to sea in their bidarka. They dress 

 themselves up on Sundays, when at home, in boots and shoes and 

 stockings of San Francisco make. He wears a conventional 

 " beaver " or plug hat often, and she affects a gay worsted hood, 

 although, on account of the steady persistence of high winds, he 

 prefers a smart marine-band cap, such as our soldiers on fatigue- 

 duty wear. He is, however, inclined to be quite sober, not giving 

 much attention to display or color, as is the habit of semi-civilized 

 people everywhere else ; but he does lavish the greatest care and 

 labor over the decoration of his bidarka, and calls upon his wife to 

 ornament the seams of his water-repellant kamlayka and tarbosars 

 with the gayest embroidery, and tufts of bright hair and feathers, 

 and lines of cunning goose-quill work. 



Mrs. Kahgoon, however, is a true woman. She naturally desires 

 all the bright ribbons and cheap jewellery which the artful trader 

 exhibits to her longing eyes in his store, that stands so near and so 

 handy to her barrabkie, and her means only limit the purchase 

 which she makes of these prized desiderata. She dresses her hair 

 in braids, as a rule, and twists them up behind. She seldom wears 

 a bonnet or hat, but has a handkerchief, generally of cotton, some- 

 times silken, always tied over her head, and when she goes, as she 

 often does, out to call on a neighboring spinster or madam, or to 

 the store, she throws a small woollen shawl over head and shoul- 

 ders, holding it drawn together under her chin by one hand. As 

 we have intimated, she dresses principally in cotton fabrics, with 

 skirts, overskirts, white stockings, etc. ; but when she was a girl, 

 and much more than that, she usually went, with her legs and feet 

 bare, into the teeth of biting winds and over frosty water and 

 wood-paths. 



The domestic life of this hunter and his wife is all bound up 

 within the shelter of their "barrabkie." This hut or house of the 

 Aleutian hunter is half under ground, or, in other words, it is an 



