lull ] LABRETIFEEY. 91 



a man of Kadiak with a broad labret like that described by Cook as seen 

 in Prince William Sound and Cook's Inlet, Langsdorff (vol. ii, pi. ii, 

 fig. G) figures the cleat-shaped labret of the Aleuts in a clearer manner 

 than any other author : 



it Unalashka a mode of ornament which appears very strange to us Europeans, 

 and which indeed decreases in use among these islanders, is the boring the under lip 

 a little below the mouth, and sticking various objects through the slits so made. A 

 common sort of ornament is made of glass beads, somewhat after the manner of our 

 buckles. (Langsdorff's Travels, vol. ii, pi. ii, fig. G, p. 39, 1805.) 



But an earlier form of which the early voyagers say nothing, and 

 which was doubtless obsolete before their time, is preserved for us iu 

 the burial caves and shell heaps. This differs but little from the Tlin- 

 kit kalushka in some specimens, but the older ones are more rude and 

 heavy. That the cleat-shaped form was a very late development is evi- 

 dent from the fact that not a single specimen has yet been found after 

 long-continued researches in the Aleutian shell heaps. A tolerably full 

 description of these appeared in the first volume of the Contributions 

 to North American Ethnology, 1 and the figures are reproduced here for 

 clearness' sake (Plates V, VI, figs. 1-4). The Aleutian women seem 

 to have worn labrets like the males. 



From the peninsula of Aliaska northward 2 the use of labrets is still 

 common, but in most cases confined to the iuales. The Innuit man ha:, 

 usually two lateral labrets, of which the most common form is like a 

 "stove-pipe" hat, and made of bone or stone. The brim or ledge of 

 the hat is inside, the crown projecting. Some few of the Tiuueh living 

 iu proximity to the Innuit have adopted the custom which is uuknowu 

 among those who have no intercourse with the Innuit. Some of the 

 Innuit women wear small J-shaped labrets, very light and thin, two 

 close together near the middle line of the lower lip, but this is excep- 

 tional. Usually the women do not wear them, and the kalushka is en- 

 tirely unknown among them. The form of those used by the males is far 

 from uniform, except that it is always more or less stud-shaped. Into 

 the projecting part ornaments may be set in, or it may be expanded 

 like an enormous sleeve-button. A favorite ornament is half of a large 

 blue glass head, cemented on to the outside of the stud. A fan-shaped 

 appendage of mottled green and white serpentine is not rarely used. 

 This practice extends northward to Point Barrow, 3 and eastward to 



' Pp. 87-89, figures 12991, 14933, 16138, and 16139. 



» Cook describes the natives of Norton Sound in 1778 as wearing the double lateral 

 labrets as at the present day. His language is a little obscure, but there is little 

 doubt that the practico was confined to the males. See official edition of the voyage, 

 ii, p. 483. The people he saw were Innuit. 



3 At Point Barrow the lower lip in early youth is perforated at each side opposite 

 the eye tooth, and a slender piece of ivory, smaller than a crow quill, having one end 

 broad and flat like the head of a nail or tack, to rest against the gum, is inserted from 

 within, to prevent the wound healing up. This is followed by others, successively 

 larger during a period of six months or longer, until the openings are sufficiently di- 

 lated to admit the lip ornaments or labrets. As the dilation takes place in the direc- 



