Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory Part 6

It is not unusual for the women to display considerable taste in ornamenting their garments, using the steel-gray pelt of the harp seal to contrast with the black of the harbor seal, and so on. The edges of the hood and sleeves are frequently trimmed with skin from a dark colored young dog; or a strip of polar bear skin, whose long white hairs shed the rain better than those of any other mammal.

It is not rare to find loops of sinew or of sealskin attached to the breast or back of a woman's garments. These are for tying small articles, such as a needle case or a snuff-bag, to the clothing for convenience and to prevent loss.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 31. Eskimo man's deerskin coat (back.)]

A peculiar style of ornamentation is shown in Fig. 39 and 40, No. 3005, a woman's coat from Fort Chimo. The front of the skirt is fringed with little lead drops, bean-shaped in the upper row and pear-shaped in the lower, and pierced so that they can be sewed on. These lead drops are furnished by the trader at the price of about a cent and a half each, in trade. The tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of this frock cost, therefore, about $4. The four objects dangling from the front of the frock are pewter spoon-bowls.

Across the breast is a fringe of short strings of different colored beads, red, black, yellow, white, and blue. Jingling ornaments are much prized.

The tin tags from plug tobacco are eagerly sought for, perforated and attached in pendant strands 3 or 4 inches long to sealskin strips and thus serve the place of beads. I saw one woman who certainly had not less than a thousand of these tags jingling as she walked. I have also seen coins of various countries attached to the arms and dress. One coin was Brazilian, another Spanish, and several were English. Coins of the provinces were quite numerous. These were all doubtless obtained from the sailors who annually visit the place, in exchange for little trinkets prepared by the men and women.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 32. Eskimo man's sealskin coat (front).]

The collection contains five of these coats, Nos. 3005, 3225-3227 of deerskin, and 3504 of sealskin. The last is a very elaborate garment, made of handsomely contrasted pieces of the skin of two kinds of seals, the harbor seal and the harp seal, arranged in a neat pattern.

It is not common to come across a garment of this kind, as the skins of the proper or desired kinds are sometimes hard to obtain. The woman may be several years in getting the right kind and may have effected many exchanges before being suited with the quality and color. The darkest skins of the Ka sig yak (harbor seal) are highly prized by both s.e.xes.

The women set the higher value upon them. The men wear two styles of leg covering, namely, breeches like a white man's, but not open in front, and reaching but a short distance below the knees, or trousers ending in stocking feet. Sometimes in very cold weather these trousers may be worn under the breeches. Both breeches and trousers are very short-waisted.

Long stockings of short-haired deerskin with the hair in are also worn.

The women in winter wear breeches made of deerskin fastened around the hips by means of a drawstring and extending down the legs to where the tops of the boots will cover them a few inches. Some of the women wear trousers which reach only to the upper part of the thighs and are continuous with the boot which covers the foot, though in that case a pair of half-boots are added to protect the feet. The hips are covered with breeches which descend low enough on the thigh to be covered by the leggings. This style of apparel for the lower portion of the body is often extravagantly patched with various colored pieces of white and dark strips of skin from the abdomen and sides of the reindeer. When new and not soiled they are quite attractive and often contrast well with the tastefully ornamented coat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33.--Eskimo man's sealskin coat (side).]

The long boots or leggings are removed when dirty work is to be done.

Thus, skins to be sc.r.a.ped and dressed are held against the bare leg.

The leggings also serve as pockets to hold various kinds of little things, like knives, tobacco, and so on.

A person rarely owns more than a single pair of breeches; consequently I was unable to obtain any for the collection.

The boots and shoes are of different materials and somewhat different patterns for different seasons of the year. All have moccasin soles of stout material turned up an inch or two all round the foot, a tongue covering the top of the foot, joined to a broad heel band which pa.s.ses round behind the ankle. Then the legs are either made long enough to reach to the knee or else almost to the ankle. These half-boots are worn over the fur stockings in warm weather, or outside the long boots in very severe weather. Indian moccasins are also worn, sometimes over a pair of inside shoes and sometimes as inside shoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34. Eskimo woman's deerskin coat.]

For thick waterproof soles the skin of the beaver or the harp seal is used. The former wears the better. White whale skin is also used for indoor shoes, or for shoes to be worn in cold dry weather; the skins of the smaller seals are used, sometimes with the flesh side out and the hair in, sometimes with the grain side out. These thinner skins are comparatively waterproof if the black epidermis is allowed to remain on.

The beautiful creamy-white leather, made by allowing the skin to ferment until hair and epidermis are sc.r.a.ped off together and then stretching the skin and exposing it to dry cold air, does not resist water at all, and can only be used for soles in perfectly dry weather.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35. Eskimo woman's deerskin coat.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36. Eskimo women's deerskin coat.]

Buckskin soles are also used to enable the wearer to walk better with snowshoes on, as the feet are not so liable to slip or clog with snow as they would be if the footing were of sealskin. This latter has also another serious disadvantage. If it is very cold it does not permit the moisture from the feet to pa.s.s out as it freezes, rendering the boot stiff and slippery on the snowshoe, while the buckskin is porous and readily allows the moisture to escape.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37. Eskimo women's deerskin coat (back).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.--Eskimo woman's deerskin coat (side).]

The tongue and heel band are generally made of tanned sealskin, contrasting colors being often used. The legs are of sealskin, with the hair on, or of reindeer skin.

The figures represent a pair of sealskin boots with buckskin feet (Fig. 41) and a pair of half boots with white sealskin soles, black sealskin tongue and heelstrap, and buckskin tops (Fig. 42). The tanned and smoked reindeer skin for these tops was purchased from the Nascopie Indians.

A peculiar style of shoe (Fig. 43), of which I collected four pairs, is used by the so-called "Northerners," who derive most of their subsistence from the sea in winter, and who constantly have to travel on the ice, which is often very slippery. To prevent slipping, narrow strips of sealskin are sewed upon a piece of leather, which makes an undersole for the shoe, in the manner shown in the figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 39.--Eskimo woman's deerskin coat.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40. Backside of same.]

One end of the strip is first sewed to the subsole and the strip pushed up into a loop and st.i.tched again, and so on till a piece is made big enough to cover the sole of the shoe, to which it is sewed. These ice shoes are worn over the ordinary waterproof boots.

As I have already said, these boots are all made by the women. The sole is cut out by eye and is broadly elliptical in shape, somewhat pointed at the toe and heel. The leg is formed of a single piece, so that there is but one seam; the tongue or piece to cover the instep may or may not be a separate piece. If it is, the leg seam comes in front; if it forms one piece with the leg piece, the seam is behind. When the leg is sewed up and the tongue properly inserted the sole is sewed on. It is tacked at the heel, toe, and once on opposite sides of the foot, to the upper.

The sewing of the sole to the upper is generally begun at the side of the seam and continued around. Perpendicular creases at the heel, and more numerously around the toes, take up the slack of the sole and are carefully worked in. The making of this part of the shoe is most difficult, for unless it is well sewed it is liable to admit water.

The creases or "gathers" are st.i.tched through and through with a stout thread, which holds them in place while the operation proceeds, and which besides has a tendency to prevent the gathers from breaking down.

The heel, which comes well up the back of the boot, is stiffened by means of several threads sewed perpendicularly, and as they are drawn shorter than the skin, they prevent the heel from falling and thus getting "run down."

The seams of the boots, which are turned inside out during the operation, are so arranged on the edges that one will overlap and be tacked with close st.i.tches over the rest of the seam. This is done not only for comfort when the boot becomes dry and hard while being worn, but also to take the strain from the st.i.tches which hold the edges together. The value of a pair of boots depends much on the care bestowed in tanning and in sewing.

The hands are protected by mittens of different materials. Fur or hair mittens are worn only in dry weather, as the hair would retain too much moisture.

Among the Innuit the mammals are divided into two cla.s.ses: the n.o.ble and the inferior beasts. The skins of the former are used, though not exclusively, by the men, while the latter may be worn only by the women.

No man would debase himself by wearing a particle of the fur of the hare or of the white fox; the skins of these timid creatures are reserved for the women alone. Either s.e.x may wear the skins of all other mammals, except at certain times, under restrictions imposed by superst.i.tion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 41. Eskimo boots.]

The women wear mittens of hare or fox skin, with palms of sealskin or Indian-tanned bird's skin. Reindeer skin with the hair on is also used for mittens. The heavy skin from the body is selected for the sake of warmth. When these mittens are to be used when driving dogs the palm is made of sealskin, to enable the wearer to get a firm grasp on the whip handle. The skin of the deer's forelegs, which has hair of a different character from that on the body, also makes excellent mittens, specially suited for handling snow in building the snow huts. Mittens are sometimes fringed round the wrist with a strip of white bearskin to keep out the wind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 42. Eskimo shoes.]

All mittens have such short thumbs that they are very inconvenient for a white man, who habitually holds his thumb spread away from the palm, whereas the Innuit usually keep the thumb apposed to the palm. The wrists of the mitten also are so short that considerable of the wrist is often exposed. The sleeves of the jacket are generally fringed with wolf or dog skin to protect this exposed portion of the wrist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 43. Ice-shoes, Hudson strait Eskimo.]

Similar mittens of black sealskin are also worn by the men during damp weather, or when handling objects which would easily soil a pair of furred mittens. I have never seen a woman wear this kind of covering for the hand. It appears to be exclusively worn by the men.

The men who engage in the late fall seal hunting protect their hands with waterproof gauntlets, which reach well up over the forearm. These keep the hands from being wet by the spray and by the drip from the paddle. Fig. 44, No. 90074, represents one of these long mittens, made of black tanned sealskin, and edged with a strip of hairy sealskin over an inch wide. The back or upper portion of the mitten is made of a single piece of black skin, the edge of which is crimped and turned under to protect the fingers. The palm is a separate piece, joined to the backpiece, and on it is a projecting part to form the inner half of the thumb. The outer half of the thumb and the under side of the forearm are made of a single piece, st.i.tched to the palm portion and that which covers the back of the hand and arm, so that, including the edging of hairy skin, there are only four pieces of skin entering into the make of a pair of these mittens. They are worn only by the men, and only when they are engaged in work where the hands would be immersed in water during cold weather. As the skin from which they are made is the same as that used for water-tight boots, it is obvious that no moisture can touch the skin of the hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44. Long waterproof sealskin mitten.]

For protection from rain and wet they wear over their other clothes a waterproof hooded frock (Fig. 45) made of seal entrails, preferably the intestines of the bearded seal (_Erignathus barbatus_). The intestines of animals killed in October are considered the best for this purpose.

They then are not so fat and require less dressing to clean them. The contents are removed and they are filled with water and thoroughly washed out. The fat and other fleshy matter adhering are removed by means of a knife used as a sc.r.a.per. This being done, the intestine is inflated with air and strung along the tops of the rocks to dry. When dry it is carefully flattened and rolled into tight bundles, like a spool of ribbon, and laid away until wanted.

When required for use it is split longitudinally, and when spread open is of variable width from 3 to 5 inches, depending on the size of the animal. The edges of the strips are examined and any uneven portions are cut off, making the strip of uniform width. There are three separate pieces in a garment--the body and hood as one and the sleeves as two.

Sometimes the sleeves are made first and sometimes the body is sewed first, and of this latter portion the hood is first formed. Strips are sewed edge to edge with the exterior of the intestine to form the outside of the garment. The edge is turned down, so as to leave a width of a third of an inch, and turned to the right; the other strip is similarly folded, but turned to the left and laid on the other strip.

Sinew from the back of a reindeer or from a seal is made into threads a yard or more in length and of the thickness of medium-sized wrapping cord. The needle is usually of a number 3 or 4 in size or of less diameter than the thread in order that the thread shall the more effectually fill up the hole made by the needle. The two strips are then sewed with st.i.tches about nine to the inch, through and through, in a manner, I believe, termed running st.i.tches. When a sufficient length is obtained a third strip is added, and so on until the required number of perpendicular strips form a sufficient width to surround the body. The outer edges are then joined and the body of the garment is complete.

Portions are cut out and the hood a.s.sumes the desired shape, resembling a nightcap attached to the body of a nightgown. The sleeves are sewed in a similar manner and affixed to the body of the garment. The seams run perpendicularly and not around the body in a spiral manner as in garments made by the natives of Alaska for similar purposes. The edge of the hood, the wrists, and the bottom of the garment are strengthened by means of thin strips of sealskin sewed on the outside of those parts where they are most liable to be torn. The garment is worn during wet weather or while in the kaiak traveling on a rough sea. The bottom of the garment is tied around the hoop of the kaiak in which the wearer sits and thus effectually sheds the water from the body, except the face, and keeps it from entering the kaiak.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45. Waterproof gutfrock.]

Sometimes a drawstring closes the hood tightly around the face and prevents the spray from entering. The string is usually tied at the top of the hood, in which case it is rather difficult to untie.

When not in use the material must be well oiled and rolled up or it will become so stiff that it can not be worn until it has been relaxed by dipping in water. The sinew with which it is sewed swells when wet and tightens the seams.