496 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Their legs and feet are so well clothed that no degree of cold can well 

 affect them. When a man goes on a sealing excursion, he first puts on a pair 

 of deer-skin boots (AllehU&ga) with the hair inside and reaching to the 

 knee, where they tie. Over these come a pair of shoes of the same mate- 

 rial ; next a pair of dressed seal-skin boots perfectly water-tight ; and over 

 all a corresponding pair of shoes, tying round the instep. These last are 

 made just like the mocassin of a North- American Indian, being neatly 

 crimped at the toes, and having several serpentine pieces of hide sewn 

 across the sole to prevent wearing. The water-tight boots and shoes are 

 made of the skin of the small seal, (neitiek) except the soles, which consist 

 of the skin of the large seal (oguke) ; this last is also used for their fishing- 

 lines. When the men are not prepared to encounter wet, they wear an outer 

 boot of deer-skin with the hair outside. 



The inner boot of the women, unlike that of the men, is loose round the 

 leg, coming as high as the knee-joint behind, and in front carried up, by a 

 long pointed flap, nearly to the waist, and there fastened to the breeches. 

 The upper boot, with the hair as usual outside, corresponds with the other 

 in shape, except that it is much more full, especially on the outer side, where 

 it bulges out so preposterously as to give the women the most awkward, 

 bow-legged appearance imaginable. This superfluity of boot has probably 

 originated in the custom, still common among the native women of Labrador, 

 of carrying their children in them. We were told that these women some- 

 times put their children there to sleep ; but the custom must be rare among 

 them, as we never saw it practised. These boots, however, form their prin- 

 cipal pockets, and pretty capacious ones they are. Here, also, as in the 

 jackets, considerable taste is displayed in the selection of different parts of 

 the deer-skin, alternate strips of dark and white being placed up and down 

 the sides and front by way of ornament. The women also wear a mocassin 

 (Itteegega) over all, in the winter-time. 



One or two persons used to wear a sort of ruff round the neck, composed 

 of the longest white hair of the deer-skin, hanging down over the bosom in 

 a manner very becoming to young people. It seemed to afford so little 

 additional warmth to persons already well clothed, that I am inclined 

 rather to attribute their wearing it to some superstitious notion. The chil- 

 dren between two and eight or nine years of age had a pair of breeches and 

 boots united in one, with braces over their shoulders to keep them up. 

 These, with a jacket like the others, and a pair of deer-skin mittens, 



