52 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [BLH. ANN. 18 
woman of this island, is from a sketch made and kindly presented to 
me by Mr Henry W. Elliot. 
At Mechigme. bay, Siberia, a man was seen who had a double circle 
connected by radiating lines on each cheek (figure 15, a). At Plover 
bay a boy had the raven totem over each eye, as shown in the illustra- 
tions of totem markings. On St Lawrence island a man had circles, 
representing labrets, near the lower corners of his mouth, and two 
short, parallel lines on each temple (figure 15, b). 
BEADS AND EARRINGS 
The practice of piercing the septum of little girls is still common 
among the Eskimo of the Alaskan mainland. While the children are 
small they wear one or more beads about the size of buckshot pendent 
from this hole so that they rest upon the upper lip. When the girl 
reaches maturity, the nose beads are not worn, and I never observed 
any use made by women of the hole in the septum except for carrying 
ay a 
Lee a 
RW 
a i 
os 
a b 
Fic. 15—Cireular forms of tattooing (a, on a Mechigme bay man; b,on a St Lawrence island young 
man). 
small objects like needles, which are frequently thrust through the 
opening and held in place by the pressure of the wings of the nose on 
either side. . 
On the Asiatic coast large boys and young men were frequently seen 
wearing two or three beads strung on their hair so as to hang down 
over their foreheads. The hair and the clothing of little girls and young 
women of the district south of the lower Yukon are highly ornamented 
with beads. These are hung in parallel strings, held in position as flat 
bands by means of small, flat, ivory rods, or by strips of heavy skin 
pierced with holes at short intervals, through which pass the cords on 
which the beads are strung. Loops of these bands sometimes hang 
from the earrings over the shoulders to the breast; others are attached 
to the braids of hair above the ears. To these loops is frequently 
attached a heavy copper ring. 
The practice among women of piercing the lobe or outer edge of the 
ear is common in all the territory occupied by the Eskimo visited by 
me. In some instances only the lobe is pierced, and in others holes 
