skins of the ermine. The plains’ Indians wore bracelets of antelope 
teeth, the Carrier of northern British Columbia attached the claws 
and teeth of both the caribou and the beaver to their clothing, and 
wore necklaces of split and dyed antler, while their neighbours, the 
Tsimshian, and other coastal tribes, sewed fringes of jingling caribou 
claws or puffin bills to their dancing aprons. The Eskimo, again, 
and some tribes on the Pacific coast, greatly esteemed the white 
ermine skins; the former often suspended ten or a dozen from a 
single coat, while the Haida and Tsimshian of the Pacific coast wore 
them beliind like a train, attached to an elaborate head-dress. Both 
Eskimo and Indians sometimes loaded the dress with objects of 
the most varied character, from curiously shaped stones to wood- 
pecker’s heads; but the majority of such pendants carried some 
religious meaning, and so ranked less as ornaments than as charms. 
Of ornaments not attached to the clothing the commonest were 
necklets and bracelets, which prevailed among every tribe except the 
Eskimo; the Eskimo were so completely enveloped in fur clothing 
that they had little space for detached ornaments except ear pend- 
ants, and, in the western Arctic, labrets. Anklets were most com- 
mon on the Pacific coast, and labrets were restricted to the northern 
tribes of that region and to the western Arctic. \'ery few plains’ or 
northern Indians wore ear or nose pendants,^ although these were 
fashionable in both eastern and western Canada. Instead of nose 
pendants, the Nootka of Vancouver island sometimes passed through 
the septum long shell pins (“ sprit-sails,” as Jewitt humorously 
calletl them), like some tribes in Melanesia. Every region, indeed, 
gave a stamp of indivirluality to its ornaments. The British Col- 
umbia Indians esteemed most highly their ornaments of native 
copper and dentalia shells, which passed in barter from tribe to tribe, 
the copper southward, and the dentalia shells north; but as the 
scarcity of these objects placed them beyond the reach of all but 
the most influential natives, tlie majority substituted bands of 
painted leather, or ornaments of dyed and undyed cedar bark.- Co])- 
per was more plentiful in eastern Canada, and, therefore, less highly 
esteemed. Although frequently used for bracelets and other orna- 
1 C/. Franklin, J.: “Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shore.s of the Polar Sea”; p. 28, 
Ivondon, 1828. 
2 Some tribes, e.g. the Tsimshian and the Bella Coola, restricted dyed bark ornaments to members 
of certain secret societies; others, like llic- Haida, placed no restrictions on their use. 
