Fig. 70.—Pattern of man’s breeches.
Fig. 71.—Trimming of man’s breeches.
[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. 73a): 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. 73b) 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.
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.[230]