366 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
clipped close. The outside is painted all over with red ocher. The 
front is nearly all in one piece, but the back is irregularly pieced and 
gored. It is surmounted by a thick tuft of brown and white wolverine 
fur about 5 inches long, sewed into the apex. To the middle of one side 
at the edge is sewed a narrow strip of deerskin with the hair clipped 
close, which is long enough to go under the wearer’s chin and be knotted 
into a slit close to the edge of the other side of the cap. On the front 
edge is sewed a row of thirty-five incisor teeth of the mountain sheep 
by a thread running through a hole drilled through the root of each. 
The series is regularly graduated, having the largest teeth in the 
middle and the smallest on the ends. Above this is a narrow strip of 
brown deerskin running two-thirds 
round the cap and sewed on flesh side 
out so that the hair projects as a fringe 
below. Above this are three ornamental 
bands about 2 inches apart running two- 
thirds round the cap, each fringed on 
the lower edge with sheep teeth strung 
as on the edge of the cap. The lower 
row contains 54 teeth, the middle 29, 
and the upper 31. The lowest band is 
made of 2 strips of mountain sheepskin 
with a narrow strip of black sealskin be- 
tween them, and a narrow strip of brown 
deerskin with the hair out; the next is 
of coarse gray deerskin with the hair 
out; and the uppermost of brown deerskin with the flesh side out 
The cap is old and dirty, and has been long in use. 
The custom of wearing this style of cap appears to be peculiar to 
the northwestern Eskimo, as I find no mention for it elsewhere. It is 
perhaps derived indirectly from the northern Indians, some of whom 
are represented as wearing a similar headdress. 
In certain parts of the same ceremony as witnessed by Lieut. Ray 
the dancers also wore rattle mittens, which were shaken in time to the 
music. <A pair of these were offered for sale once, but Lieut. Ray did 
not consider them sufficiently of pure Eskimo manufacture to be worth 
the price asked for them. They were made of sealskin and covered all 
over the back with empty Winchester cartridge shells loosely attached 
by a string through a hole in the bottom, so as to strike against each 
other when the mitten was shaken. The five men who wore these mit- 
tens wore on their heads the stuffed skins of various animals, the wolf, 
bear, fox, lynx, and dog, which they were supposed to represent. These 
articles were never offered for sale, as they were probably too highly 
valued. ‘ 
We collected twelve wooden masks, which we were told were worn in 
some of these ceremonies, though none of our party ever witnessed any 
Fa. 366,—Wooden mask. 
