MURDOCH. ] BREECHES. 125 
Mittens are universally employed among the Eskimo, but gloves 
with fingers, which, as is well known, are a much less warm covering 
for the hand than mittens, are very rare. They are in use at Norton 
Sound! and in the Mackenzie district,? and have even been observed 
among the Arctic ‘Highlanders of Smith Sound, who, however, gener- 
ally wear mittens.? Dr. Simpson‘? mentions both deerskin and bear- 
skin mittens as used at Point Barrow, but makes no reference to 
gloves. The natural inference from this is that the fashion of wearing 
gloves has been introduced since his time. It is quite probable that 
the introduction of firearms has favored the general adoption of gloves. 
The following hypothesis may be suggested as to the way the fashion 
reached Point Barrow: We may suppose that the Malimiut of Norton 
Sound got the idea directly from the Russians. They would carry the 
fashion to the Nunatanmiun at Kotzebue Sound, who in their turn 
would teach it to the Point Barrow traders at the Colville, and these 
would carry it on to the eastern natives. 
LEG AND FOOT CLOTHING, 
Breeches (ka’kli)—The usual leg-covering of the men is one or two 
pairs of knee breeches, rather 
loose, but fitted to the shape of 
the leg. They are very low in 
front, barely covering the pubes, 
but run up much higher behind, 
sometimes as high as the small 
of the back. They are held in 
place by a girdle of thong round 
the waist, and are usually fas- 
tened below the knee, over the 
boots, by a drawstring. There 
is one pair in the collection, No. 
56759 [91], Fig. 69. They are 
of short-haired brown reindeer 
skin, from the body of the ani- 
mal, worn with the hair out. 
The waist is higher behind than 
in front, and each leg is slightly 
gathered to a band just be- 
low the knee. Pattern (see 
diagram, Fig. 70): There are 
two pieces in each leg, the in- 
side and the outside. The 
spaces between the edges e of the two legs is filled by the gusset, 
F iG. 69.—Man’s breeches of deerskin. 
!Dall, Alaska, pp. 23,152, and 153. He speaks of the thumb (p. 23) as ‘‘a triangular, shapeless pro- 
tuberance"’; a description which applies well to those in our collection. 
2 MacFarlane MS., and Petitot, Monographie, ete., p. xv. 
3Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865. 
4 Op. cit., p. 242. 
