MURDOCH. | LABRETS. 143 
No. 89386 [1340] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook pro- 
jects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round button. Both of the 
specimensare of theusual pattern, but very roughly made. Thecustom of 
wearing earrings is very general among the Eskimo. I need only refer 
to the descriptions of dress and ornaments already quoted. 
Labrets.—As has been stated by all travelers who have visited Point 
Barrow since the time of Elson, all the adult males wear the labrets 
or stud-shaped Jip ornaments. The discussion of the origin and extent 
of this habit, or even a comparison of the forms of labrets in use among 
the Eskimo, would lead me far beyond the scope of the present work.! 
They are or have been worn by all the Eskimo of western America, 
including St. Lawrence Island and the Diomedes, from the most south- 
ern point of their range to the Mackenzie and Anderson district, and 
were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times.’ East of the Mackenzie dis- 
trict no traces of the habit are to be observed. Petitot® says that Cape 
Bathurst is the most eastern point at 
which labrets are worn. The custom of 
wearing them at this place is perhaps 
recent, as Dr. Armstrong, of the Investi- 
gator, expressly states that he saw none 
there in 1850. At Plover Bay, eastern 
Siberia, however, I noticed one or two 
men with a little cross or circle tattoed 
under each corner of the mouth, just in 
the position of the labret. This may bea 
reminiscence of an ancient habit of wear- 
ing labrets, or may have been done in imi- 
tation of the people of the Diomedes and 
the American coast. Fig. 90.—Earrings. 
At Point Barrow at the present day the lip is always pierced for two 
labrets, one at each corner of the mouth, though one or both of them 
are frequently left out. They told us, however, that in ancient times 
a single labret only was worn, for which the lip was pierced directly in 
the middle. Certain old and large-sized labrets in the collection are said 
to have been thus worn. The incisions for the labrets appear to be made 
about the age of puberty, though I knew one young man who had been 
married for some months before he had the operation performed. From 
the young man’s character, I fancy shyness or timidity, as suggested by 
Dr. Simpson,* had something to do with the delay. Contrary to Dr. 
Simpson’s experience, I did not see a single man above the age of 18 or 
19 who did not wear the labrets. It seems hardly probable that ability 
' This subject has been thoronghly treated by Mr. W.H. Dall in his admirable paper in the Report of 
the Bureau of Ethnology, No.3 for 1881-'82, pp. 67-203. 
2See Dall, Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 87, and the paper just referred to. 
3 Monographie, etc., p. xxvi. 
4Op. cit., p., 241. 
