164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



Locarno Beach Phases, and suggests that they diffused northward 

 from this area to the Aleut and Eskimo. 



A labret worn in the middle of the lower lip (by both sexes?) is 

 probably the oldest style. Very large saucer-shaped medial labrets 

 worn only by women represent a local development on the northern 

 Northwest Coast, while the lateral labret worn in pairs only by men 

 is another local development among the Eskimo north of Bristol 

 Bay. Although labrets, including some large medial ones, belong to 

 the Ipiutak cultm-e of Point Hope and also to the older Norton 

 Phase of Bristol Bay (Giddings, 1960, p. 125), the labret is curiously 

 absent from other old northwestern Alaskan cultm'es until modern 

 times, when it was presumably reintroduced from the south (Birket- 

 Smith, 1953, pp. 218 ff.). An interior source is less likely, for it has 

 been reported only from the Ingalik Tena, Tanaina, Babine, and 

 possibly the Chilcotin; the first three seem to have adopted it only 

 recently from their coastal neighbors. It did not occur in Tena sites. 



The labret is thus one of the ancient traits linking the southern 

 Eskimo and the southern Northwest Coast, and should, therefore, 

 have been found at Yakutat, probably at some site more ancient than 

 Old Town. Presumably it was abandoned at Yakutat, as it was in 

 northern Alaska and on the central and southern Northwest Coast. 

 Its revival at Yakutat must be ascribed to recent Tlingit influence. 

 Perhaps it was discarded on the Gulf of Alaska because of migrations 

 to the coast of Copper River and Alsek River Athabaskans who did 

 not wear it. Interior influences may also explain why the labret was 

 abandoned on the central and southern Northwest Coast. 



BONE CATCH 



A flat piece of bone with rounded ends (fig. 19, j), about 10.3 cm. 

 long when complete, and 1.3 cm. wide, comes from Old Town II, In 

 the middle of one edge are six notches, and at each end is a pair of holes 

 connected on one surface by a groove. This object was probably a 

 catch or fastener of some kind, for if a line were passed through the 

 two pairs of holes it could be tightened by catching a loop in one of 

 the notches. Our Angoon informants told us that decorated hats 

 sometimes had a bone catch to tighten the cord under the chin. 



WOODEN COMB 



A carbonized wooden comb comes from Old Town II (fig. 20, c). 

 It is 7.4 cm. long and about 4 cm. wide, and originally had six teeth. 

 The handle is carved to represent a bird's head, probably the Raven, 

 a totemic crest of the K'^ackqwan sib that owned Yakutat Bay. The 

 flat surfaces are decorated with the eye motif characteristic of North- 

 west Coast art, although here it is not very well executed. 



