_Method of wearing the hair._--The men and boys wear their hair combed
down straight over the forehead and cut off square across in front,
but hanging in rather long locks on the sides, so as to cover the
ears. There is always a small circular tonsure on the crown of the
head, and a strip is generally clipped down to the nape of the neck.
(See Fig. 89, from a sketch from life by the writer.) The natives
believe that this clipping of the back of the head prevents snow
blindness in the spring. The people of the Mackenzie district have a
different theory. “La large tonsure que portent nos Tchiglit a pour
but, m’ont-ils dit, de permettre au soleil de rechauffer leur cerveau
et de transmettre par ce moyen sa bienfaisante chaleur à leur cœur
pour les faire vivre.”[N246] Some of the Nunatañmiun and one man from
Kilauwĭtaiwĭñ that we saw wore their front hair long, parted in the
middle, and confined by a narrow fillet of leather round the brow. The
hair on the tonsure is not always kept clipped very close, but
sometimes allowed to grow as much as an inch long, which probably led
Hooper to believe that the tonsure was not common at Point
Barrow.[N247] It is universal at the present day, as it was in Dr.
Simpson’s time.[N248] The western Eskimo generally crop or shave the
crown of the head, while those of the east allow their hair to grow
pretty long, sometimes clipping it on the forehead. The practice of
clipping the crown appears to be general in the Mackenzie
district,[N249] and was occasionally observed at Iglulik by Capt.
Parry (2d Voy., p. 493). The natives of St. Lawrence Island and the
Siberian coast carry this custom to an extreme, clipping the whole
crown, so as to leave only a fringe round the head.[N250] The women
dress their hair in the fashion common to all the Eskimo except the
Greenlanders and the people about the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers,
where the women bring the hair up from behind into a sort of high
top-knot, with the addition in the latter district of large bows or
pigtails on the sides.[N251] The hair is parted in the middle from the
forehead to the nape of the neck, and gathered into a club on each
side behind the ear. The club is either simply braided or without
further dressing twisted and lengthened out with strips of leather,
and wound spirally for its whole length with a long string of small
beads of various colors, a large flat brass button being stuck into
the hair above each club. The wife of the captain of a whaling umiak
wears a strip of wolfskin in place of the string of beads when the
boat is “in commission” (as Capt. Herendeen observed).
[Footnote N246: Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xxxi.]
[Footnote N247: Tents, etc., p. 225.]
[Footnote N248: Op. cit., p. 238.]
[Footnote N249: Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xxxi. See also
Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 118.]
[Footnote N250: See also Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 9 and
252, and figures passim, especially pp. 84 and 85; Hooper, Tents,
etc., p. 27; and Dall, Alaska, p. 381.]
[Footnote N251: See Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp. Many illustrations,
passim, Smith Sound; Egede, p. 132, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 128,
Greenland; Brodbeck, “Nach Osten,” p. 23, and Holm, Geogr. Tids.,
vol. 8, p. 90, East Greenland; Frobisher, in Hakluyt, Voyages,
etc. (1589), p. 627, Baffin Land; Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and
Lyon, Journal, p. 230, Iglulik; Petitot, Monographie, etc.,
p. xxix, Mackenzie district; Hooper, Tents, etc., pp. 257, Icy
Reef, and 347, Maitland Id.; Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 119, Point
Sabine; Dall, Alaska, pp. 140 and 381, Norton Sound and Plover
Bay. See also references to Nordenskiöld, given above, and Krause
Bros., Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 5.]
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--Man’s method of wearing the hair.]
Some of the little girls wear their hair cut short behind. The hair is
not arranged every day. Both sexes are rather tidy about arranging
their hair, but there is much difference in this between individuals.
The marrow of the reindeer is sometimes used for pomatum. Baldness in
either sex is rare. I do not remember ever seeing a bald woman, and
there were only two bald men at the two villages. Neither of these men
was very old.
_Head-bands._--Some of the men and boys wear across the forehead a
string of large blue glass beads, sometimes sewed on a strip of
deerskin. Occasionally, also a fillet is worn made of the skin of the
head of a fox or a dog, with the nose coming in the middle of the
forehead. Such head-dresses are by no means common and seem to be
highly prized, as they were never offered for sale. MacFarlane (MS.)
speaks of a similar head-dress worn at the Anderson River, “generally
made of the skin of the fore part of the head skins of wolves,
wolverines, and marmots. Very often, however, a string of beads is
made use of instead.” Another style of head-dress is the badge of a
whaleman, and is worn only when whaling (and, I believe, at the
ceremonies in the spring preparatory to the whaling). This seems to be
very highly prized, and is, perhaps, “looked upon with superstitious
regard.”[N252] None were ever offered for sale and we had only two or
three opportunities of seeing it. It consists of a broad fillet of
mountain-sheep skin, with pendants of flint, jasper, or crystal,
rudely flaked into the shape of a whale (see under “Amulets,” where
specimens are described and figured), one in the middle of the brow
and one over each ear. Some of them are also fringed with the incisor
teeth of the mountain sheep attached by means of a small hole drilled
through the end of the root, as on the dancing cap (see under “Games
and Pastimes”). The captain and harpooner of a whaling crew which I
saw starting out in the spring of 1882 each wore one of these fillets.
The harpooner’s had only the whale pendants, but the captain’s was
also fringed with teeth. This ornament closely resembles the fillet
fringed with deer’s teeth, observed by Capt. Parry at Iglulik,[N253]
which “was understood to be worn on the head by men, though we did not
learn on what occasions.”
[Footnote N252: See Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 243. Compare also
Brodbeck, “Nach Osten” (p. 23). Speaking of “ein Kopf- oder
Stirnband,” he says: “Vielleicht gilt es ihnen als eine Art von
Zauberschützmittel, denn es ist um kein Geld zu haben. Drängt man
sie, so sagen sie wohl, es sei nicht ihr eigen.”]
[Footnote N253: Second Voy., p. 498 and Fig. 7, pl. opposite
p. 548.]
_Earrings (nógolu)._--Nearly all the women and girls perforate the
lobes of the ears and wear earrings. The commonest pattern is a little
hook of ivory to which are attached pendants, short strings of beads,
etc. Large, oblong, dark-blue beads and bugles are specially desired
for this purpose. Cheap brass or “brummagem” earrings are sometimes
worn nowadays. The fashion in earrings seems to have changed somewhat
since Dr. Simpson’s time, as I do not remember ever having seen the
long strings of beads hanging across the breast or looped up behind as
he describes them.[N254] At present, one earring is much more
frequently worn than a pair. There are in the collection two pairs of
the ivory hooks for earrings, which, though made for sale, are of the
ordinary pattern. Of these No. 89387 [1340] (Fig. 90) will serve as
the type. They are of coarse, white walrus ivory.
[Footnote N254: Op. cit., p. 211.]
No. 89386 [1340] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook
projects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round button. Both
of the specimens are of the usual pattern, but very roughly made. The
custom of wearing earrings is very general among the Eskimo. I need
only refer to the descriptions of dress and ornaments already quoted.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--Earrings.]
_Labrets._--As has been stated by all travelers who have visited Point
Barrow since the time of Elson, all the adult males wear the labrets
or stud-shaped lip ornaments. The discussion of the origin and extent
of this habit, or even a comparison of the forms of labrets in use
among the Eskimo, would lead me far beyond the scope of the present
work.[N255] They are or have been worn by all the Eskimo of western
America, including St. Lawrence Island and the Diomedes, from the most
southern point of their range to the Mackenzie and Anderson district,
and were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times.[N256] East of the
Mackenzie district no traces of the habit are to be observed.
Petitot[N257] says that Cape Bathurst is the most eastern point at
which labrets are worn. The custom of wearing them at this place is
perhaps recent, as Dr. Armstrong, of the _Investigator_, expressly
states that he saw none there in 1850. At Plover Bay, eastern Siberia,
however, I noticed one or two men with a little cross or circle
tattooed under each corner of the mouth, just in the position of the
labret. This may be a reminiscence of an ancient habit of wearing
labrets, or may have been done in imitation of the people of the
Diomedes and the American coast.
[Footnote N255: This subject has been thoroughly treated by Mr.
W. H. Dall in his admirable paper in the Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, No. 3 for 1881-’82, pp. 67-203.]
[Footnote N256: See Dall, Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 87, and the
paper just referred to.]
[Footnote N257: Monographie, etc., p. xxvi.]
At Point Barrow at the present day the lip is always pierced for two
labrets, one at each corner of the mouth, though one or both of them
are frequently left out. They told us, however, that in ancient times
a single labret only was worn, for which the lip was pierced directly
in the middle. Certain old and large-sized labrets in the collection
are said to have been thus worn. The incisions for the labrets appear
to be made about the age of puberty, though I knew one young man who
had been married for some months before he had the operation
performed. From the young man’s character, I fancy shyness or
timidity, as suggested by Dr. Simpson,[N258] had something to do with
the delay. Contrary to Dr. Simpson’s experience, I did not see a
single man above the age of 18 or 19 who did not wear the labrets. It
seems hardly probable that ability to take a seal entitles a boy to
wear labrets, as he suggests. We knew a number of boys who were
excellent seal hunters and even able to manage a kaiak, but none had
their lips pierced under the age of 14 or 15, when they may be
supposed to have reached manhood. The incisions are at first only
large enough to admit a flat-headed pin of walrus ivory, about the
diameter of a crow quill, worn with the head resting against the gum.
These are soon replaced by a slightly stouter pair, and these again by
stouter ones, until the holes are stretched to a diameter of about
one-half inch, when they are ready for the labrets.
[Footnote N258: Op. cit., p. 241.]
We heard of no special ceremonies or festivals connected with the
making of these incisions, such as Dall observed at Norton
Sound,[N259] but in the one case where the operation was performed at
the village of Utkiavwĭñ during our stay, we learned that it was done
by a man outside of the family of the youth operated upon. We were
also informed that the incisions must be made with a little lancet of
slate. The employment of an implement of ancient form and obsolete
material for this purpose indicates, as Dall says in the passage
referred to above, “some greater significance than mere
ornamentation.”
[Footnote N259: Alaska p. 141.]
The collection contains two specimens of such lancets. No. 89721
[1153] (figured in Rept. Point Barrow Expedition, Ethnology, Pl. V,
Fig. 4) is the type. A little blade of soft gray slate is carefully
inclosed in a neat case of cottonwood. The blade is lanceolate, 1.3
inches long, 0.6 broad, and 0.1 thick, with a short, broad tang. The
faces are somewhat rough, and ground with a broad bevel to very sharp
cutting edges. The case is made of two similar pieces of wood, flat on
one side and rounded on the other, so that when put together they make
a rounded body 3 inches long, slightly flattened, and tapering toward
the rounded ends, of which one is somewhat larger than the other.
Round each end is a narrow, deep, transverse groove for a string to
hold the two parts together. A shallow median groove connects these
cross grooves on one piece, which is hollowed out on the flat face
into a rough cavity of a shape and size suitable to receive the blade,
which is produced into a narrow, deep groove at the point, probably to
keep the point of the blade from being dulled by touching the wood.
The other piece, which serves as a cover, has merely a rough, shallow,
oval depression near the middle. The whole is evidently very old, and
the case is browned with age and dirt.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Plug for enlarging labret hole.]
No. 89579 [1200] is a similar blade of reddish purple slate, mounted
in a rough haft of bone. Fig. 91, No. 89715 [1211], is one of a pair
of bone models, made for sale, of the ivory plugs used for enlarging
the holes for the labrets, corresponding in size to about the second
pair used. It is roughly whittled out of a coarse-grained compact
bone, and closely resembles the plugs figured by Dall from Norton
Sound,[N260] but lacks the hole in the tip for the transverse wooden
peg, which is not used at Point Barrow. One youth was wearing the
final size of plugs when we landed at the station. These were brought
to a point like the tip of a walrus tusk, and had exactly the
appearance of the tusks of a young walrus when they first protrude
beyond the lip. The labrets worn at Point Barrow at the present day
are usually of two patterns. One is a large, flat, circular disk about
1½ inches in diameter, with a flat stud on the back something like
that of a sleevebutton, and the other a thick cylindrical plug about 1
inch long, and one-half inch in diameter, with the protruded end
rounded and the other expanded into an oblong flange, presenting a
slightly curved surface to the gum. These plug labrets are the common
fashion for everyday wear, and at the present day, as in Dr. Simpson’s
time, are almost without exception made of stone, Granite or syenite,
porphyry, white marble, and sometimes coal (rarely jade) are used for
this purpose.
[Footnote N260: Alaska, p. 140.]
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--Labret of beads and ivory.]
One of the Nunatañmiun wore a glass cruet-stopper for a labret, and
many natives of Utkiavwĭñ took the glass stopples of Worcestershire
sauce bottles, which were thrown away at the station, and inserted
them in the labret holes for everyday wear, sometimes grinding the
round top into an oblong stud. There is one specimen of the plug
labret in the collection. Labrets of all kinds are very highly prized,
and it was almost impossible to obtain them.[N261] Though we
repeatedly asked for them and promised to pay a good price, genuine
labrets that had been worn or that were intended for actual use were
very rarely offered for sale, though at one time a large number of
roughly made models or imitations were brought in. The single specimen
of the plug labret (tu´tɐ) is No. 89700 [1163] (figured in Point
Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. V, Fig. 3). It is a cylindrical plug of
hard, bright green stone (jade or hypochlorite), 1.1 inches long and
0.6 in diameter at the outer end, which is rounded off, tapering
slightly inward and expanded at the base into an elliptical disk 1.2
inches long and 0.9 broad, slightly concave on the surface which rests
against the teeth and gum. The specimen is old and of a material very
unusual at Point Barrow. Fig. 92, No. 89719 [1166], from Nuwŭk, may
also be called a plug labret, but is of a very unusual pattern, and
said to be very old. It has an oblong stud of walrus ivory surmounted
by a large, transparent, slightly greenish glass bead, on top of which
is a small, translucent, sky-blue bead. The beads are held on by a
short wooden peg, running through the perforations of the beads and a
hole drilled through the ivory. There is a somewhat similar labret in
the Museum collection (No. 48202) from Cape Prince of Wales, also very
old. It is surmounted by a single oblong blue bead.
[Footnote N261: The men whom Thomas Simpson met at or near Barter
Island sold their labrets, but demanded a hatchet or a dagger for
a pair of them (Narrative, p. 119).]
I saw but one other labret made of whole beads, and this had three
good sized oval blue beads, in a cluster, projecting from the hole. It
was worn by a man from Nuwŭk. This may be compared with a specimen
from the Mackenzie district, No. 7714, to which two similar beads are
attached in the same way. The disk labret is the pattern worn on
full-dress occasions, seldom when working or hunting. One disk and one
plug labret are frequently worn. Disk labrets are made of stone,
sometimes of syenite or porphyry, but the most fashionable kind is
made of white marble, and has half of a large, blue glass bead
cemented on the center of the disk. These are as highly prized as they
were in Dr. Simpson’s time, and we consequently did not succeed in
procuring a specimen.
I obtained one pair of syenite disk labrets, No. 56716 [197] (figured
in Point Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. V, Fig. 2). Each is a flat
circular disk (1.7 and 1.6 inches in diameter, respectively) of rather
coarse-grained black and white syenite, ground very smooth, but not
polished. On the back of each is an elliptical stud, like that of a
sleeve-button, 1.2 and 1.1 inches long and 0.8 and 0.6 broad,
respectively.
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--Blue and white labret from Anderson River.]
Fig. 93, No. 2083, is one of the blue and white disks said to come
from the Anderson River. This is introduced to represent those worn at
Point Barrow, which are of precisely the same pattern. The disk is of
white marble, 1½ inches in diameter, and in the center of it is
cemented, apparently with oil dregs, half of a transparent blue glass
bead, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, around the middle of
which is cut a shallow groove. Similar marble disks without the bead
are sometimes worn. These blue and white labrets appear to be worn
from Cape Bathurst to the Kaniag peninsula, including the Diomede
Islands (see figure on p. 140 of Dall’s Alaska). There are specimens
in the Museum from the Anderson River and from the north shore of
Norton Sound and we saw them worn by the Nunatañmiun, as well as the
natives of Point Barrow and Wainwright Inlet. The beads, which are
larger than those sold by the American traders, were undoubtedly
obtained from Siberia, as Kotzebue, in 1816, found the people of the
sound which bears his name wearing labrets “ornamented with blue glass
beads.”[N262] The high value set on these blue-bead labrets has been
mentioned by Franklin[N263] and T. Simpson,[N264] as well as by Dr.
Simpson.[N265] The last named seems to be the first to recognize that
the disks were made of marble. All previous writers speak of them as
made of walrus ivory.
[Footnote N262: Voyage, vol. 1, p. 210. Labrets of precisely the
same pattern as the one described are figured in the frontispiece
of this volume. (See also Choris, Voyage Pittoresque).]
[Footnote N263: 2d Exp., p. 118.]
[Footnote N264: Narrative, p. 119.]
[Footnote N265: Op. cit., p. 239.]
There are still at Point Barrow a few labrets of a very ancient
pattern, such as are said to have been worn in the middle of the lip.
These are very rarely put on, but are often carried by the owners on
the belt as amulets. All that we saw were of light green translucent
jade, highly polished. I obtained one specimen, No. 89705 [866]
(figured in Point Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. V, Fig. 1), a thin
oblong disk of light green, translucent, polished jade, 2.6 inches
long, 1.1 wide in the middle, and 0.8 wide at the ends, with the outer
face slightly convex. On the back is an oblong stud with rounded ends,
slightly curved to fit the gums.
Labrets of this material and pattern do not seem to be common
anywhere. Beechey saw one in Kotzebue Sound 3 inches long and 1½
wide,[N266] and there is a large and handsome one in the Museum
brought by Mr. Nelson from the lower Yukon. A similar one has recently
been received from Kotzebue Sound.
[Footnote N266: Voyage, p. 249.]
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--Oblong labret of bone.]
Fig. 94, No. 89712 [1169], from Sidaru is a labret of similar shape,
3 inches long and 1½ broad, but made of compact bone, rather neatly
carved and ground smooth. It shows some signs of having been worn.
There are marks on the stud where it appears to have been rubbed
against the teeth, and it is probably genuine. The purchase of this
specimen apparently started the manufacture of bone labrets at
Utkiavwĭñ, where no bone labrets, old or new, had previously been
seen. For several days after we bought the specimen from Sidaru the
natives continued to bring over bone labrets, but all so newly and
clumsily made that we declined to purchase any more than four
specimens. About the same time they began to make oblong labrets out
of soapstone (a material which we never saw used for genuine labrets),
like Fig. 95, No. 89707 [1215]. The purchase of three specimens of
these started a wholesale manufacture of them, and we stopped
purchasing.
[Illustration: FIG. 95. Oblong labret of soapstone.]
The oblong labret appears to have been still in fashion as late as
1826, for Elson saw many of the men at Point Barrow wearing oblong
labrets of bone (_cf._ No. 89712 [1169] and stone, 3 inches long and 1
broad.[N267] Unfortunately, he does not specify whether they were worn
in pairs or singly, and if singly, as would be natural from their size
and shape, whether in the middle of the lip or at one side.
[Footnote N267: Beechey’s Voy., p. 308.]
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--Ancient labrets.]
Nos. 89304 [1713], 89716 [1042], and 89717 [1031] (Fig. 96) are very
old labrets, which are interesting from their resemblance to the
ancient Aleutian single labrets found by Dall in the cave on Amaknak
Island.[N268] No. 89304 [1713] is an elliptical plug of bituminous
coal, with a projecting flange round the base, which is slightly
concave to fit the curve of the jaw. This labret is very old and was
said to have been found in one of the ruined houses in Utkiavwĭñ. The
other two labrets are of walrus ivory and of similar shape, but have
the flange only at the ends of the base. All of these three are large,
the largest being 2.2 inches wide and 0.7 thick, and the smallest 1.3
by 0.5, so that they required a much larger incision in the lip than
is at present made. In connection with what has been said of the
ancient habit of wearing labrets in the middle of the lip, it is
interesting to note that Nordenskiöld saw men at Port Clarence who
had, besides the ordinary labret holes, “a similar hole forward in the
lip.”[N269] The various portraits of natives previously inserted show
the present manner of wearing the labrets at Point Barrow.
[Footnote N268: See Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 89, and the two
copper figures on the plate opposite.]
[Footnote N269: Vega, vol. 2, p. 233.]