MURDOCH. ] LABRETS. 147 
first to recognize that the disks were made of marble. All previous 
writers speak of them as made of walrus ivory. 
There are still at Point Barrow a few labrets of a very ancient pattern, 
such as are said to have been worn in the middle of the lip. These are 
very rarely put on, but are often carried by the owners on the belt as 
amulets. All that we saw were of light green translucent jade, highly 
polished. I obtained one specimen, No, 89705 [866] (figured in Point 
Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. v, Fig. 1), a thin oblong disk of light green, 
translucent, polished jade, 2-6 inches long, 1-1 wide in the middle, and 
0-8 wide at the ends, with the outer face slightly convex. On the back 
is an oblong stud with rounded ends, slightly curved to fit the gums. 
Labrets of this material and pattern do not seem to be common any- 
where. Beechey saw one in Kotzebue Sound 3 inches long and 14 wide,! 
and there is a large and handsome one in the Museum brought by Mr. 
Nelson from the lower Yukon. <A similar one has recently been re- 
ceived from Kotzebue Sound. 
Fig. 94, No. 89712 [1169], from Sidaru is a labret of similar shape, 3 
inches long and 14 broad, but made of compact bone, rather neatly 
‘carved and ground 
smooth. It shows 
some signs of having 
been worn. There 
are marks on the stud 
where it appears to 
have been rubbed Lave OU fae 2) OLIN 
against the teeth, and it is probably genuine. The purchase of this 
specimen apparently started the manufacture of bone labrets at Utki- 
avwin, where no bone labrets, old or new, had previously been seen. 
For several days after we bought the specimen from Sidaru the natives 
continued to bring over bone labrets, but all so newly and clumsily made 
that we declined to purchase 
any more than four specimens. 
About the same time they began 
to make oblong labrets out of 
soapstone (a material which we 
never saw used for genuine la- 
reals a Maa a ch leg brets), like Fig. 95, No. 89707 
1215]. The purchase of three specimens of these started a whole- 
sale manufacture of them, and we stopped purchasing. 
The oblong labret appears to have been still in fashion as late as 1826, 
for Elson saw many of the men at Point Barrow wearing oblong labrets 
of bone (ef. No. 89712 [1169] and stone, 3 inches long and 1 broad.’ Un- 
fortunately, he does not specify whether they were worn in pairs or 
' Voyage, p. 249. ~?Beechey’s Voy.. p. 308. 
