92 MASKS AND LABRETS. 



Dear the month of the Colville River, which falls into the Arctic Ocean. 

 Eastward from thai point the practice is entirely unknown to the In- 

 nuit, and do labrets have ever been found in the shell heaps of eastern 

 Arctic America. It is equally unknown among the Innuit who have 

 (long since) colonized on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait, and the 

 earliest information we have of these people, from the report of Simeon 

 Deshneff in Kits, describes them as at war with the people who wore 

 labrets. It is true that about 1820 some of the Tsau-chu or Chukchi re- 

 ported to a Russian navigator the supposed existence of labret- wearing- 

 people near Cape Shelagskoi, but this was probably due to a tradition 

 of the travels of some marauding party of Americau Innuit, who are 

 notorious for their long journeys in their skin canoes. 



Practically the labret practice is unknown in Northeastern Asia; it 

 has died out within two generations among the Aleuts and is dying out 

 among the Tlinkit and those Innuit who are brought into intimate con- 

 tact with the whites. In a comparatively short period it is probable that 

 the practice will be as much forgotten in Northwest America as it is now 

 in Mexico and Peru. 



tion of the libers of the muscle surrounding the mouth, tho incisions appear so very 

 uniform as to lead one to suppose each tribe had a skillful operator for the purpose ; 

 this, however, is not the case, neither is there any ceremony attending the operation. 



The labrets worn by the men are made of many different kinds of stone, and even 

 of coal, but the largest, most expensive, and most coveted, are each made of a fiat 

 circular piece of white stone, an inch and a half in diameter, the front surface of 

 which is flat, and has cemented to it half of a large blue bead. The back surface is 

 also flat, except at the center, where a projection is left to fit the hole in the lip, with 

 a broad expanded end to prevent it falling out and so shaped as to lie in contact with 

 the gum. It is surprising how a man can face a breeze, however light, at 30° or 40° 

 below zero, with pieces of stone in contact with his face, yet it seems from habit, the 

 unoccupied openings would be a greater inconvenience than the labrets which fill 

 them. (J. Simpson, on the Western Eskimo, Arctic papers of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, London, 1875, pp. 239-40.) 



The Point Barrow natives informed Professor Murdoch, of the Signal Service party 

 lately stationed there, that very long ago, so long that it was only known by tradi- 

 tion, the men wore large median labrets like one which he purcha j ',d. But that 

 fashion is now entirely extinct. 



