Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 29 



breasts. They will tell you as a rule that they tattoo themselves 

 for their own pleasure, and as a kind of decoration, but they also 

 seem to have some notion that it will render them more skilful in 

 their work. The tattooing takes place as soon as the women are 

 grown-up. 



The men are very seldom tattooed, and then they only have a 

 few small lines on their arms and wrists 'to enable them to harpoon 

 weir. Sometimes they have also a few lines in the face by way of 

 ornament. It happens also now and then that tattooing is resorted 

 to in serious cases of sickness. 



The tattooing is performed by sewing through the skin with a 

 sinew thread smeared with soot. 



Clothing. Men's dress. — The men wear a long frock-like 

 garment put on over the head, anorak; it is made of sealskin with 

 the hair inwards, and reaches down over the hips (fig. 17). It is 

 provided with a hood for drawing over the head, and at the 

 bottom it is as a rule somewhat pointed, both at the front and at 

 the back. The anorak is so wide over the breast that the arms 

 can easily be drawn out of the sleeves and held close to the body, 

 which is very often done when it is cold (figs. 16, 17, 28, 36). The 

 frock is very soft and of a yellowy-white colour, bordered with 

 strips of bear, dog, or new-born seal skin, and has often also white 

 unhaired skin sewed into the seams. Sometimes the frock is made 

 of fox-skin, over which is placed thin seal-skin, which is sewed on 

 in strips of white and dark skin (fig. 16). Raven and auk skins 

 too are said to be used for anoraks. . 



Over this frock is worn in bad weather or in the kaiak a gut 

 frock of the same cut, made of intestines of seals split open and 

 sewed together {ikiak, fig. 298). 



Next to the skin are worn quite diminutive drawers, only à 

 few inches high, which fit closely to the loins and just manage to 

 cover the sexual parts (figs. 18, 62 and 291). They are made of 

 sealskin with the hair outward, and are as a rule nicelv embroidered. 

 They are called natit. When the natives are at the settlement, they 

 seldom wear any other breeches but these, even in the severest 

 cold. But, when out kaiaking or hunting, or when away from their 

 home, they wear above them another pair of breeches, made of seal 

 skin or bear skin, the fur side outward. They are very low in front, 

 barely covering the pubes, but run up higher behind, and are 

 held in place by a cord above the hips, outside the anorak. They 

 are fastened below the knees over the boots by a string, (figs. 16, 

 17, 63, 294). 



