ARCTIC COSTUMES.
We left Cape Felix on the 7th of July, reluctantly satisfied that Sir
John Franklin had not been buried in that vicinity. The minuteness of
our search will appear in the number of exploded percussion caps, shot,
and other small articles that were found in various places. The Inuits
who were with us evinced a most remarkable interest in our labors, and
with their eagle eyes were ever finding things that would have escaped
our attention. Everything they did not fully understand they brought to
us, and though many of such things were of no account they were not
discouraged. Since Toolooah had found the inscription scratched on a
clay stone on the monument erected by Captain Hall over the remains
near Pfeffer River, he had always been watchful, and often, while away
from camp hunting, he has come upon a stone near a demolished cairn, or
on some conspicuous place which had marks on that he thought might be
writing. These he invariably brought into camp, though often compelled
to carry them a long distance, in addition to a load of meat. We always
praised his efforts in that line, and were pleased to notice that he
did not get discouraged by repeated failures to discover something of
interest. He is as untiring in his efforts to aid us in our search as
in securing food, and there is always a degree of intelligence
displayed in whatever he undertakes that is wholly foreign to the Inuit
character. Even the stones that he brought into camp bore marks that
were most astonishingly like writing. You could almost read them. If we
had not been so straitened for transportation we would have brought
some of these remarkable specimens home.
As far as we had now progressed scarcely anything had given us more
trouble than the question of clothing. In countries where tailors and
dressmakers are abundant, clothing is a matter of very little labor to
the masses--in fact, it simply resolves itself into a question of
pecuniary resources. The dwellers in civilized cities can, therefore,
scarcely appreciate the toil which all must share to secure the
necessary garments to protect those who live in the highest latitudes.
In the fur of the reindeer nature has provided the best possible
protection from the cold, with the least amount of weight to the
wearer. It might be possible to cover one's self with a sufficient
quantity of woollen clothing to guard against the severest weather
in the north, but it would require a man of immense muscular power
to sustain the load. Two suits of reindeer clothing, weighing in all
about five pounds, are quite ample for any season, and are only worn
in the coldest weather. At other times one suit is all that is
necessary. The inner coat is made of the skin of the reindeer killed
in the early summer, when the hair is short and as soft as velvet,
and is worn with the hairy side next to the bare skin. It is at first
difficult for one to persuade himself that he will be warmer without
his woollen undershirts than with them; but he is not long in
acquiring the knowledge of this fact from experience. The trousers
are made of the same material, as are also the stockings that complete
his inner attire, or, so to speak, his suit of underclothing. This
inner suit--with the addition of a pair of seal or reindeer skin
slippers, with the hair outside, and a pair of seal-skin boots from
which the hair has been removed, with soles of walrus or okejook skin,
and drawing-strings which fasten them just below the knee--comprises
his spring, summer, and fall costume. The boots have also an additional
string passing through loops on the side, over the instep and behind
the heel, which makes them fit comfortably to the ankle.
In winter seal-skin is entirely discarded by the native Esquimaux as
too cold, and boots of reindeer skin, called mit-co-lee-lee', from the
leg of the animal, are substituted, and snow-shoes of the same sort of
skin, with the hair inside, and a false sole of skin from the face of
the buck, with the hair outside, complete the covering of his feet.
This hairy sole not only deadens the sound of his footsteps upon the
hard snow, but makes his feet much warmer, as it has the same effect as
if he were walking upon a carpet of furs instead of upon the naked
snow. In cold or windy weather, when out of doors, the native puts on
another coat, called a koo'-lee-tar, which is made of skin with heavier
fur, from the animal killed in the fall.
The winter skins, with the heaviest and longest fur, are seldom used
for clothing if a sufficient supply of the fall and summer skins has
been secured. They are principally used for making what might be called
the mattress of the bed. Sometimes, however, in the severest weather, a
coat made of the heavy skin is worn when the hunter has to sit by a
seal's blow-hole for hours at a time, without the least motion, waiting
for the animal to come up and blow. In cold weather, when out of doors,
he also wears an outside pair of trousers, called see'-ler-par, which
are worn with the hair outside (all trousers are called kok'-e-lee, the
outside see'-ler-par, and the inside ones e'-loo-par). The inside coat
is called an ar-tee'-gee, and is made like a sack, with a tail
attached, and a hood which can be pulled up over the head at pleasure.
The kok'-e-lee are both made with a drawing-string at the waist, and
only reach a short distance below the knee. They are very wide there,
so that when the wearer sits down his bare knee is exposed. This is not
as disagreeable to the wearer, even in that climate, as one would
naturally suppose, but is really more unpleasant for the spectator, for
he not only sees the bare knee but the film of dirt that incases it.
The coats are very loose also, and expose the bare skin of the stomach
when the wearer reaches his hands above his head.
The coats of the women differ from those of the men only in having a
short tail in front, and a much longer one behind. They also have a
loose bag on each shoulder, and the hood is much longer than the men
wear. The women's outside coats are always made of the short hair, the
same as are their ar-tee'-gee. Their trousers reach further below the
knee, fit closer to the leg, and are worn with the hairy side out.
Women never wear but the one pair in any weather. Their stockings and
boots are made with a sort of wing extension at the ankle, and, coming
up over the bottom of the trousers, have a long strip, by which they
are fastened to the belt that also sustains their trousers at the
waist.
To secure the necessary amount of skins for his family taxes the skill
of the best hunter, for they must be secured in the summer and fall.
Each adult requires six skins for his outfit, besides the number for
the bedding. Take, then, an average family of a hunter, two wives and
three children, and he must have for the adults eighteen skins, eleven
for the children, three for his blanket--one blanket is enough for the
entire family to sleep under--and about five for the mattress--a total
of thirty-seven skins. This is more than many of them can secure during
the short season of good fur; but others may kill many more, now that
they are supplied with fire-arms, and those who have a surplus will
always supply the actual needs of the more unfortunate; but often much
suffering occurs before their wants are met.
When a hunter kills a reindeer, the first thing he does is to skin it;
then he eats some of the warm, quivering flesh. This is a very
important part of his task. He cuts it open and removes the entrails,
and, making a sack of the reticulated stomach, fills it with the blood
that is found in the cavity of the body. He then regales himself with
some of the spinach-like contents of the paunch, and, by way of filling
in the time and the little crinkles in his stomach, cuts off and eats
such little portions of fat as are exposed in the process of
butchering. He then looks around for a stony place and deposits the
carcass conveniently near it, together with the entrails and the bag of
blood. Before cutting the body open it is turned back up, and the strip
of muscles along each side of the backbone is removed, together with
the sinew that covers it. Over this also lies the layer of tallow
(tood-noo) when the animal is fat, as is usually the case in the summer
and fall. The head is then severed from the body and placed on top of
the rest of the meat, so that when the entire mass is covered with
about a ton weight of large stones it is considered secure from the
ravages of foxes and wolves. Not so, however, from the wolverine and
bear--they can open any newly made cache; but after the snows have
fallen, and the stones and meat are frozen in one compact mass, it
requires the ingenuity of man to remove it. This is done by loosening
as large a stone as possible with the foot, and with this stone as a
battering-ram another and larger one is loosened, which in turn serves
as the battering-ram to loosen the others. Often it is found necessary
to use a narrow, wedge-like stone as a lever, or to force the other
stones apart. The cache is always made more conspicuous by leaving the
antlers to protrude above the stones.
After his meat has been secured and he has refreshed himself with a
pipe, the hunter makes a bundle of the skin and the meat attached to
the sinew and tallow, and wends his way to his tupic, where his wife or
wives await him. His favorite wife takes the meat (oo-le-oo-she-nee)
and strips the sinew (oo-le-oo-tic) from it by holding the meat in her
teeth while she cuts the sinew from it with her knife, which is shaped
like a currier's knife. She then chews off the meat that still adheres
to the sinew until it is perfectly clean, and hangs it up to dry, when
it is separated into its fibres and becomes thread (ever-loo). In the
meantime the other wife, with her teeth, cleans the fleshy side of the
skin of the meat and fat that may still adhere to it, and if the sun is
still shining stretches the skin upon the ground to dry, holding it in
place by small stones placed around the edge. At night the skins are
brought into the tent to keep them away from the dogs, and they are
again put out in the sun every day until thoroughly dried. They should
be dried as soon after killing as possible, in order that they may be
in the best condition to preserve the fur.
According to the old traditions and customs--the Mosaic law of the
Esquimaux, so to speak--no work of any kind, except the drying of them,
can be done upon new skins until the ice has formed sufficiently
thickly upon the salt water to permit the hunter to seek the seal at
his agloo or blow-hole. Until that time they are put carefully away in
the tent, and have to be carried from point to point in their nomadic
mode of life, or cached away where they will be presumably secure from
the ravages of dogs and wild animals. When the season for making the
new clothing arrives, that is, when the winter styles come out, then
the work begins. The skins are dressed by the men, because it is hard
work and beyond the power of most women, if they are required to be
nicely dressed. Only one skin is prepared at a time. There is generally
an old man at the head of each family of sons, or sons-in-law, or young
men whom he has brought up and taught to hunt. The entire stock of the
family is then spread out upon the ground some fine day, without regard
to individual claims as having secured them, and are apportioned out by
the patriarch--these for this son's outfit, these for his wife and
children, those for the other hunter and his family, and these extra
fine ones for the patriarch's own use and for his wives.
The clothing for the men must be made first, for they are the lords,
and then they need them first as they must go out hunting, and should
be made as comfortable as possible. The two skins that are to become
his inside coat, and the one for his inner trousers--his dress suit,
as it were--are selected, and the women dampen the fleshy side with
water that is warmed in their mouths and squirted on the skin, to be
spread evenly over the surface with their hands. They are then folded
over, with the damp side in, and put aside where they will not freeze
until the next day. After arising in the morning, and a breakfast of
raw meat, followed by a pipe, he removes his coat, and, with nothing on
from his waist up but the usual dirt, he sits upon his bed, and with a
bone scraper, called a suk-koo, goes over every particle of the skin
upon the fleshy side, breaking it thoroughly and stretching it. Then
comes the woman's first part of the work. It is not considered best to
dry the skin over a lamp, because it has a tendency to harden it
somewhat. It should be dried gradually, and by the heat of the body, so
the woman wraps it around the upper part of her body, next to her skin,
and sits at work until it is thoroughly dried. One who has never had
the experience of exhausting his caloric for the purpose of drying a
wet blanket can have but a vague idea of the exquisite torture of
sitting in a temperature far below zero with no covering upon his
shoulders but a damp reindeer skin. It may not be unhealthy, and
perhaps a physician of the water-cure practice might recommend it for
certain ailments, but it would never become popular as a pleasurable
pastime. At night the other two skins are put in the bed, one beneath
and the other over the sleepers, and by morning are dry. But it seems
almost a miracle that the occupants escape a severe attack of
inflammatory rheumatism. In the morning the man again peels for work,
and with a suk-koo of stone, that has a sharp edge, scrapes off every
particle of the fleshy membrane until the skin becomes soft and pliant,
and assumes a delicate cream-like color.
Only the skins of the does are used for clothing or the sleeping
blanket. Buck skins, which are much less pliable compose the
underlayers of the bed, and these are not scraped, but merely stretched
on a frame while drying. The skin of a young buck is, however,
sometimes used for making the trousers, and is nearly as fine in
texture as the skin of the doe. The skins are now nearly ready for
cutting out and sewing, but first have to be chewed, which is also
women's work.
A man can scrape two skins in a day, and some of the women--many
of them are, indeed, very skillful with their crude, home-made
needles--can make a coat in two days, and a pair of trousers in one
day. Some of the young men, whose wives are good tailors, affect
considerable ornamentation upon the inside coat; but this is usually
seen in the trimming that surrounds the lower edge and the border of
the hood. Successive narrow strips of white and black fur, with very
short hair, compose this trimming, and the lower edge is finished with
fringe made of thin skin, which is quite ornamental in effect. It also
aids in keeping out the wind, and is, therefore, useful as well. The
outside coat is sometimes surrounded with a border of white fur, with
the fringe attached of longer hair than that upon the inner coat. Some
of the belles, and indeed some of the women whose beauty is a thing of
the past, wear a breastplate of beadwork, which is further decorated
with a fringe of reindeer teeth that has a most ghastly effect--they
look so much like human teeth. The style of costume differs but little
among the various tribes of North America; but in any part of the
country the labor of producing the clothing is the same, and if a man
would dress well he must work hard--he cannot order his suit from a
confiding tailor. It has its advantages and disadvantages. He has no
tailor's bills to avoid the payment of, but he must depend upon himself
and a loving and skilful wife.