402 
Eskimo trousers had bands of coloured skin. Common to both 
peoples were the long mittens necessitated by short shirt sleeves, 
and tlie hood replacing a cap that was worn by Eskimo of all ages, 
but among the Kutchin mainly by children. The Kutchin shirt 
was peculiar in one respect ; it had long fringes decorated with seeds 
or with beads of dentalia shells, and bead or porcupine-quill 
embroidery on breast, shoulders, and back. Men wore head-bands, 
necklaces, and nose-pendants of the same sliells (which constituted, 
indeed, a regular currency V), painted their faces with red ochre 
and black lead, and planted bright feathers in their hair, after 
plastering it with grease and red ochre. Their proud bearing and 
colourful dress called to mind the Indians of the plains rather than 
the sombre and depressed natives of the ^Mackenzie River valley 
who were more nearly akin. Women tattooed radiating lines from 
the lower li]> to tlie chin similar to the lines on Eskimo women, but 
they never pretended to rival the men in the adornment of their 
I)ersons. 
The dwellings of the Kutchin showed a certain originality. 
They enlarged the domed sweat-honse that was almost universal 
throughout the upper half of North America, left an opening in the 
loof for a smoke-hole, banked snow around the outside wall, and 
strewed the floor with fir boughs. With a small fire burning within, 
this novel home was fairly comfortable even in the coldest weather.- 
Most of the tribes used the same type of tent in summer also, but 
some bands of the Vunta tribe that frequented the lower Mackenzie 
at that season erected oblong huts of poles, brush, and bark to serve 
botli for dwellings and for smoke-drying their fish. 
The social organization was rather unusual, although it was 
obviously connected with the systems current along the Pacific coast. 
The Kutchin were divided into three exogamous phratries that 
counted descent in the female line; yet they recognized no distinctions 
of rank, knew nothing of crests or totems, and held no potlatches 
except those in honour of the dead. Chiefs were chosen for courage 
or wisdom alone, aiul possessed little more authority tlian the chiefs 
or leaders in the tribes along the Mackenzie. Men without relatives 
or friends found security only by attaching themselves to leading 
1 Sec part 1. p. 114. 
“Some iiilaiKl Eskimo of iioriluTii Ala.-ka ii.setl .'iiniilar dwell ini's doubtless copied from the Kufcliin. 
