Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Eskimo tribes, their common origin, their dispersion and their diversities in general - Dress and ornaments
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is common to all of them. Southern Alaska only may perhaps
show some exceptions to the general fashion, as far as can be
inferred from portraits and specimens of coats. Some of the
latter resemble those of the Indians, partly by their length,
partly by their want of a hood, while at the same time a peculiar
sort of hat is in vogue.
Another peculiarity is the WIDENING OF THE HEAD COVER for
women who have to carry children so as to make it A CRADLE
admirably adapted to the climate and the wandering life of these
Northern nomads. The mode of carrying the babies in the
widened legs of the women’s boots seems to be only an
exception proper to Labrador and some places in the Central Regions.
Some customs connected with dress have a particular
ethnological interest. In the first place the LIP ORNAMENTS OR LABRETS
and the nose ornaments common to the Indians and the Eskimo
of Alaska are obviously of American origin. That they were
invented in more southerly regions and that their wandering to
the far North only is due to the power of inherited custom is
indicated also by their way of occurrence among the Eskimo
tribes. The Thlinkit Indians, as we know, pierce the lower
lip and insert an ornament of bone or stone in the opening,
the ceremony being practised after certain rules concerning age
and sex. This custom is observed by the Eskimo with the
difference, that they use two smaller labrets under the corners
of the mouth, whereas the Thlinkits preferred to adorn the
middle of the lip with one of more excessive magnitude.
Undoubtedly this difference is occasioned by climatic influence. The
original Eskimo in being removed to the Arctic Regions have
felt the necessity of at all events modifying this strange habit.
In mentioning a labret of extraordinary size found in the
shellheaps of the Aleutian Islands, Dall asserts that «no hunter
exposed to the icy blasts and the cold waters of winter could
have worn such articles which could have subjected the extended
strip of flesh to freezing and been an insufferable annoyance
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