_Breeches (kă´kli)._--The usual leg-covering of the men is one or two
pairs of knee breeches, rather loose, but fitted to the shape of the
leg. They are very low in front, barely covering the pubes, but run up
much higher behind, sometimes as high as the small of the back. They
are held in place by a girdle of thong round the waist, and are
usually fastened below the knee, over the boots, by a drawstring.
There is one pair in the collection, No. 56759 [91], Fig. 69. They are
of short-haired brown reindeer skin, from the body of the animal, worn
with the hair out. The waist is higher behind than in front, and each
leg is slightly gathered to a band just below the knee. Pattern (see
diagram, Fig. 70): There are two pieces in each leg, the inside and
the outside. The spaces between the edges _e_ of the two legs is filled
by the gusset, made of five pieces, which covers the pubes. The crotch
is reinforced by a square patch of white deerskin sewed on the inside.
The trimming consists of strips of edging. The first strip (Fig. 71)
is 1½ inches wide, and runs along the front seam, inserted in the
outside piece, to the knee-band, beginning 5 inches from the waist.
The light strips are of clipped mountain sheepskin; the dark one of
dark brown deerskin; the pipings of the thin fawn skin, and the tags
of red worsted. The edges of the strip are fringed with narrow double
strips of mountain sheepskin 2 inches long, put on about 1½ inches
apart. A straight strip, 2 inches wide, is inserted obliquely across
the outside piece from seam to seam. It is of the same materials, but
differs slightly in pattern. The knee-band is of the same materials
and 2½ inches deep. The length from waist to knee is 24 inches behind,
23 in front; the girth of the leg 24 inches round the thigh and 14
round the knee. These represent a common style of full-dress breeches,
and are worn with a pair of trimmed boots held up by drawstrings. They
are always worn with the hair out and usually over a pair of deerskin
drawers. The ordinary breeches are of heavier deerskin, made perfectly
plain, being usually worn alone, with the hair turned in. When a pair
of under breeches is worn, however, the hair of the outer ones is
turned out. Trimmed breeches are less common than trimmed frocks, as
the plain breeches when new are often worn for full dress. The clean,
white flesh side presents a very neat appearance. The skin of the
rough seal is sometimes, but rarely, used for summer breeches, which
are worn with the hair out. With this exception, breeches seem to be
invariably made of deerskin. This garment is practically universal
among the Eskimo and varies very little in pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--Pattern of man’s breeches.]
[Illustration: FIG. 71.--Trimming of man’s breeches. 3/8]
_Pantaloons (kûmûñ)._--The women and children, and occasionally the
men, wear pantaloons (strictly speaking), i.e., tight-fitting trousers
continuous with the foot covering. Of the two pairs of pantaloons in
the collection, No. 74042 [1792] (Fig. 72) will serve as the type. The
shoes with sealskin moccasin soles and deerskin uppers are sewed at
the ankles to a pair of tight-fitting deerskin trousers, reaching
above the hips and higher behind than in front. Pattern (diagram, Fig.
73_a_): Each leg is composed of four long pieces (front 1, outside 2,
back 3, and inside 4), five gussets (one on the thigh 5, and four on
the calf, 6, 6, 6, 6), which enlarges the garment to fit the swell of
the calf and thigh and the half-waistband (7). The two legs are put
together by joining the edges _d d d_ of the opposite legs and sewing
the gusset (8) into the space in front with its base joined to the
edges _e e_ of the two legs. The sole of each shoe is a single piece
of white tanned sealskin with the grain side out, bent up about 1¼
inches all round the foot, rounded at the toe and heel and broadest
across the ball of the foot. The toe and heel are “gathered” into
shape by crimping the edge vertically. A space of about 3½ inches is
left uncrimped on each side of the foot. (The process of crimping
these soles will be described under the head of boots and shoes, where
it properly belongs). Around the top of this sole is sewed a narrow
band of white sealskin, sewed “over and over” on the edge of the
uncrimped space, but “run” through the gathers at the ends, so as to
draw them up. The upper is in two pieces (heel, 9, and toe, 10). The
heel piece is folded round the heel, and the toe piece doubled along
the line _f_, and the curved edges _g g_ joined to the straight edges
_h h_, which makes the folded edge _f_, fit the outline of the instep.
The bottom is then cut off accurately to fit the sole and sewed to the
edge of the band. The trousers and shoes are sewed together at the
ankles. The whole is made of the short-haired skin from the deer’s
legs. Pieces 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are of dark brown skin (10 put on
so that the tuft of coarse hair on the deer’s ankle comes on the
outside of the wearer’s ankle), while the remaining pieces are white,
making a pleasing pattern of broad stripes. The inner edge of 5 is
piped with dark brown fawnskin, and a round piece of white skin is
inserted at the bottom of 2. No. 56748 [136] is a pair of pantaloons
of nearly the same pattern (see diagram, Fig. 73_b_) and put together
in a similar way. These pantaloons have soles of sealskin with the
hair left on and worn inside, and are made of deer leg skin, wholly
dark brown, except the gussets on the calf, which are white. There is
a piece of white skin let out, 2, as before, and the ankle tuft is in
the same position.
[Illustration: FIG. 72.--Woman’s pantaloons.]
From the general fit of these garments they appear to be all made on
essentially the same pattern, probably without greater variations than
those already described. When worn by the women the material is
usually, if not always, the skin of reindeer legs, and most commonly
of the pattern of No. 56748 [136], namely, brown, with white leg
gussets. Pantaloons wholly of brown skin are quite common, especially
for everyday wear, while striped ones, like No. 74042 [1792], are much
less usual and worn specially for full dress. Children’s pantaloons
are always brown, and I have seen one pair, worn by a young lad, of
lynx skin. The two or three pairs which we saw worn by men were wholly
brown. These pantaloons of leg skin with sealskin soles are always
worn with the hair out and usually over a pair of under pantaloons of
the same shape, but made of softer skins with longer hair, which is
worn next the skin, and with stocking feet. The outer pantaloons are
discarded in summer and the inner ones only worn, the feet being
protected by sealskin waterproof boots, as already stated. The
waterproof sealskin pantaloons mentioned in the same connection do not
fit so neatly, as they are made with as few seams as possible (usually
only one, up the leg) to avoid leakage. They are sewed with the
waterproof seam, and held up round the ankle by strings, like the
waterproof boots to be described further on. This last-mentioned
garment seems to be peculiar to the Point Barrow region (including
probably Wainwright Inlet and perhaps the rest of the coast down to
Kotzebue Sound). No mention of such a complete protection against wet
is to be found in any of the published accounts of the Eskimo
elsewhere, nor are there any specimens in the Museum.[N230]
[Illustration: FIG. 73.--Patterns of woman’s pantaloons.]
[Footnote N230: Dr. Simpson’s language (op. cit., p. 243) is a
little indefinite (“The feet and legs are incased in water-tight
sealskin boots”), but probably refers to these as well as to the
knee boots. The “outside coat of the same material,” and the boots
and outside coat “made all in one, with a drawing string round the
face,” mentioned in the same place, appears to have gone wholly
out of fashion since his time. At all events, we saw neither,
though we continually saw the natives when working in the boats,
and these garments, especially the latter, could hardly have
failed to attract our attention.]
Boots and breeches united in this way so as to form pantaloons are
peculiar to the west of America, where they are universally worn from
the Mackenzie district westward and southward. We have no specimens of
women’s leg coverings from the Mackenzie district, but Petitot[N231]
describes them thus: “Le pantalon * * * fait corps avec la chaussure.”
In the east the women always wear breeches separate from the boots,
which usually differ from those of the men in their size and length,
often reaching to the hips.[N232]
[Footnote N231: Monographie, etc., p. xv.]
[Footnote N232: Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865, Smith Sound;
Egede, p. 131, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138, Greenland; Parry, 2d
Voy., p. 495 and 496, Iglulik, and Kumlien, op. cit., p. 23,
Cumberland Gulf. Also in Labrador, see Pl. XVII, Naturalist, vol.
19, No. 6. The old couple whom Franklin met at the Bloody Fall of
the Coppermine appear to have worn pantaloons, for he speaks of
their “tight leggings sewed to shoes” (1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180).]
[Illustration: FIG. 74.--Pattern of stocking.]
_Stockings._--Next to the skin on the feet and legs the men wear
stockings of deerskin, usually of soft, rather long-haired skin, with
the hair in. These are usually in three pieces, the leg, 1, toe piece,
2, and sole, 3 (see diagram, Fig. 74). A straight strip about 1 inch
wide often runs round the foot between the sole and the other pieces.
Stockings of this pattern, but made of very thick winter deerskin, are
substituted for the outer boots when deer-hunting in winter in the dry
snow, especially when snowshoes are used. They are warm; the flesh
side sheds the snow well and the thick hair acts as a sort of wadding
which keeps the feet from being galled by the bars and strings of the
snowshoes. Many of the deer-hunters in 1883 made rough buskins of this
pattern out of the skins of freshly killed deer simply dried, without
further preparation.
_Boots and shoes._--Over the stockings are worn boots or shoes with
uppers of various kinds of skin, with the hair on, or black tanned
sealskin, always fitted to heelless crimped moccasin soles of some
different leather, of the pattern which, with some slight
modifications of form, is universal among the Eskimo. These soles are
made as follows: A “blank” for the sole is cut out, of the shape of
the foot, but a couple of inches larger all round. Then, beginning at
one side of the ball of the foot, the toe part is doubled over toward
the inside of the sole, so that the edges just match. The two parts
are then pinched together with the teeth along a line parallel to the
folded edge and at a distance from it equal to the depth of the
intended fold. This bitten line runs from the edge of the leather as
far as it is intended to turn up the side of the sole. A series of
similar folds is carried round the toe to a point on the other side of
the sole opposite the starting point. In the same way a series of
crimps is carried round the heel, leaving an uncrimped space of 2 or 3
inches on each side of the foot. The sole is then sewed to a band or
to the edge of the upper, with the thread run through each fold of the
crimps. This gathers the sole in at the heel and toe and brings the
uncrimped part straight up on each side of the shank. When the folds
are all of the same length and but slightly gathered the sole is
turned up nearly straight, as at the heel usually, and at the toe also
of waterproof boots. When the folds are long and much gathered the
sole slopes well in over the foot. Some boots, especially those
intended for full dress, have the sole deeper on the sides than at the
toe, so that the top of the sole comes to a point at the toe. The
ordinary pattern is about the same height all round and follows the
shape of the foot, being rather more gathered in over the toe than at
the heel. The “blank” for the sole is cut out by measuring the size of
the foot on the leather and allowing by eye the margin which is to be
turned up. The crimping is also done by eye. Any irregularity in the
length of the crimps can be remedied by pressing out the crease.
I have never seen at Point Barrow the ivory knives, such as are used
at Norton Sound for arranging the crimps.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--Man’s boot of deerskin.]
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--Pattern of deerskin boot.]
Different kinds of leather are used for the soles, and each kind is
supposed to be best suited for a particular purpose. The beautiful
white urine-tanned sealskin is used for winter wear when the snow is
dry, but is not suited for standing the roughness and dampness of the
salt-water ice. For this purpose sealskin dressed with the hair on and
worn flesh side out is said to be the very best, preferable even to
the various waterproof skins used for summer boot soles. For
waterproof soles are used oil-dressed skins[N233] of the walrus,
bearded seal, polar bear, or, best of all, the white whale. This last
makes a beautiful light yellow translucent leather about 0.1 inch
thick, which is quite durable and keeps out water for a long time. It
is highly prized and quite an article of trade among the natives,
a pair of soles usually commanding a good price. These Eskimo appear
to be the only ones who have discovered the excellence of this
material for waterproof soles, as there is no mention to be found of
its use elsewhere. The “narwhal skin” spoken of by Dr. Simpson[N234]
is probably this material, as he calls it “Kel-lel´-lu-a,” which is
the ordinary word for white whale at Point Barrow. The narwhal is very
rare in these waters, while the white whale is comparatively abundant.
Dr. Simpson appears not to have seen the animal from which the skin
was obtained. It is, however, by no means impossible that _some_ skins
of the narwhal, which when dressed would be indistinguishable from the
white whale skins, are obtained from the eastern natives or elsewhere.
Such crimped soles are in use among the Eskimo everywhere, varying but
little in general pattern. The Greenland boots are specially
noticeable for the neatness of the crimping, while specimens in the
Museum from the central region are decidedly slovenly in their
workmanship. The boots worn by the natives of Plover Bay have the sole
narrowed at the shank and hardly coming over the foot except at the
toe and heel, where they are crimped, but less deeply than usual. This
style of sole very much resembles those of a pair of Kamchatdale boots
in the National Museum, which, however, are turned up without
crimping, as is the case with the boots used by the Aleuts on the
Commander Islands, of which Dr. L. Stejneger has kindly shown me a
specimen. There is a folded “welt” of sealskin in the seam between the
upper and sole of the Plover Bay boots. I am informed by Capt.
Herendeen that the natives have been taught to put this in by the
whalemen who every year purchase large numbers of boots on the
Siberian coast, for use in the Arctic. Similar welts, which are very
unusual on Eskimo boots, are to be seen on some brought by Mr. Nelson
from Kings Island and Norton Sound. The winter boots usually have
uppers of deerskin, generally the short-haired skin from the legs.
Mountain-sheep skin is sometimes used for full-dress boots, and
sealskin with the hair out for working boots. The latter is not a good
material, as the snow sticks to it badly. There are four pairs of
men’s winter boots in the collection, from which No. 56750 [111]
(Fig. 75) has been selected as the type of the everyday pattern. They
are made of deer-leg skin with white sealskin soles. Leg and upper are
in four pieces,[N235] back 1, two sides 2 2, and front 3; 1 and 3 are
gored at _a a a_ to fit the swell of the calf; 1 and 3 are of dark
skin, and 2 2 lighter colored, especially along the middle. The bottom
is cut off accurately to fit the sole but the top is left irregular,
as this is concealed by the breeches. The boots are held up round the
ankles by two tie-strings of sealthong, sewed in between the sole and
the band, one on each side just under the middle of the ankle. They
are long enough to cross above the heel, pass once or twice round the
ankle, which fits more loosely than the rest of the boot, and tie in
front. On each heel is a large round patch of sealskin with the hair
on and pointing toward the toe (to prevent slipping). These patches
are carefully “blind-stitched” on so that the stitches do not show on
the outside.
[Footnote N233: Probably prepared like the boat covers described
by Crantz, vol. 1, p. 167, by drying them without removing all of
their own blubber.]
[Footnote N234: Op. cit., pp. 242-266.]
[Footnote N235: See diagram, Fig. 76.]
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--Man’s dress boot of deerskin.]
Boots of this style are the common everyday wear of the men, sometimes
made wholly of dark deerskin and sometimes variegated. They are often
made of a pattern like that of the lower part of the women’s
pantaloons; that is, with the uppers separate from the leg pieces,
which are brown, with four white gussets on the calf. Fig. 77, No.
56759 [91], is one of a pair of full-dress boots of a slightly
different pattern. The leg pieces are the same in number as in No.
56750, and put together in the same way, but 2 and 3 are of a
different shape.[N236] They are made of deer-leg skins, each piece
with a lighter streak down the middle. The soles are of white
sealskin, finely crimped, with the edge coming to a point at the toe,
and the five ornamental bands are of sealskin, alternately black and
white. A strip of edging three-fourths of an inch wide is inserted in
the seam between 2 and 3 on each side. The light stripes are
mountain-sheep skin and the dark ones the usual young fawnskin, tagged
with red worsted. The leg reaches to just below the knee, and is
hemmed over on the inside, to hold the drawstring, which comes out
behind. There are strings at the ankles as before.
[Footnote N236: See diagram, Fig. 78.]
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--Pattern of man’s dress boot of deerskin.]
Fig. 79, No. 89834 [770], is one of a pair of almost precisely the
same pattern as the last, but made of mountain-sheep skin. The soles
are more deeply turned up all round and have three ornamental bands of
sealskin around the edge, black, white, and black. Edging is inserted
into both the seams on each side. It is strips of mountain-sheep skin
and a dark brown deerskin, tagged with red worsted, with the edge
which laps over the side piece cut into oblique tags. There are no
tiestrings, as the soles are turned up high enough to stay in place
without them. These boots were brought from the east by one of the
Nuwŭk trading parties in 1882. Fig. 80, No. 56749 [110], is also a
full-dress boot, with soles like the last and no tiestrings. The leg
is of two pieces of dark brown deerskin with the hair clipped short.
These pieces are shaped like 2 in No. 56750, and the inner is larger,
so that it laps round the leg, bringing the seam on the outside. The
leg is enlarged to fit the swell of the calf by a large triangular
gusset from the knee to the midleg, meeting the inside piece in an
oblique seam across the calf. Instead of a hem, the top of the leg has
a half-inch band sewed round it and a binding for the drawstring above
this. Edging is inserted in the front seam, and obliquely across the
outside of the leg. That in the front seam is three narrow strips of
deerskin, dark in the middle and light on each side. The other is of
mountain-sheep skin in three strips, piped with fawnskin and tagged
with worsted.
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--Man’s dress boot of skin of
mountain-sheep.]
The boots belong with the breeches, No. 56759. They fairly represent
the style of full-dress boots worn with the loose-bottomed breeches.
They all have drawstrings just below the knee, and often have no
tie-strings at the ankles. The eastern Eskimo are everywhere described
as wearing the boots tied at the top with a drawstring and the bottoms
of the breeches usually loose and hanging down on them. Tying down the
breeches over the tops of the boots, as is done at Point Barrow, is an
improvement on the eastern fashion, as it closes the garments at the
knee so as to prevent the entrance of cold air. The same result is
obtained in an exactly opposite way by the people of Smith Sound, who,
according to Bessels (Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865), tie the boots over
the breeches.
All fur garments, including boots, are sewed in the same way, usually
with reindeer sinew, by fitting the edges together and sewing them
“over and over” on the “wrong” side. The waterproof boots of black
sealskin, however, are sewed with an elaborate double seam, which is
quite waterproof, and is made as follows: The two pieces are put
together, flesh side to flesh side, so that the edge of one projects
beyond the other, which is then “blind-stitched” down by sewing it
“over and over” on the edge, taking pains to run the stitches only
part way through the other piece. The seam is then turned and the edge
of the outer piece is turned in and “run” down to the grain side of
the under with fine stitches which do not run through to the flesh
side of it. Thus in neither seam are there holes through both pieces
at once. The sewing is done with fine sinew thread and very fine round
needles (the women used to ask for “little needles, like a hair”), and
the edge of the leather is softened by wetting it in the mouth.
A similar waterproof seam is used in sewing together boat covers.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--Pair of man’s dress boots of deerskin.]
There is one pair of waterproof boots in the collection (No. 76182
[1794] Fig. 81). The tops are of black dressed sealskin, reaching to
the knee and especially full on the instep and ankle, which results
from their being made with the least possible number of seams, to
reduce the chance of leaking. The soles are of white whale skin,
turned up about 1½ inches all around. The leg and upper are made all
in one piece so that the double water-tight seam runs down the front
of the leg to the instep, and then diagonally across the foot to the
quarter on one side. The bottom is cut off accurately to fit the top
of the sole. The edges of the upper and the sole are put together so
that the inside of the former comes against the inside of the latter,
and the two are “run” together with fine stitches, with a stout double
under-thread running through them along the surface of the upper. The
ornamental band at the top is of white sealskin “run” on with strong
dark thread, and the checkered pattern is made by drawing a strip of
black skin through slits in the white. Round the top of the band is
sewed a binding of black sealskin, which holds a drawstring of sinew
braid. The sole is kept up in shape and the boot made to fit round the
ankle by a string of sealskin twine passed through four loops, one on
each side just back of the ball of the foot, and one on each quarter.
These loops are made of little strips of white whale skin, doubled
over and sewed to the edge of the sole on the outside. The ends of the
string are passed through the front loop so that the bight comes
across the ball of the foot, then through the hinder loops, and are
crossed above the heel, carried once or twice around the ankle, and
tied in front.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--Woman’s waterproof sealskin boot.]
Such boots are universally worn in summer. The men’s boots are usually
left with an irregular edge at the top, and are held up by the
breeches, while the women’s usually have white bands around the tops
with drawstrings. Half-boots of the same material, reaching to midleg,
without drawstrings, or shoes reaching just above the ankle with a
string round the top are sometimes worn over the deerskin boots.
Similar shoes of deerskin are sometimes worn in place of boots.
Waterproof boots of black sealskin are universally employed by Eskimo
and by the Aleuts. These boots stand water for a long time without
getting wet through, but when they become wet they must be turned
inside out and dried very slowly to prevent them from shrinking, and
worked soft with a stone skin-dressing tool or the teeth. The natives
prefer to dry them in the sun. When the black epidermis wears off this
leather is no longer waterproof, so that the women are always on the
watch for white spots, which are mended with water-tight patches as
soon as possible.
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--Sketch of “ice-creepers” on boot sole]
In the early spring, before it thaws enough to render waterproof boots
necessary, the surface of the snow becomes very smooth and slippery.
To enable themselves to walk on this surface without falling, the
natives make a kind of “creeper” out of strips of sealskin. These are
doubled lengthwise, and generally bent into a half-moon or horseshoe
shape, with the folded edges on the outside of the curve, sewed on the
toe and heel of the sealskin sole, as represented in Fig. 82.