Waterproof boots of black sealskin are universally employed by Eskimo and by the Aleuts. These boots stand water for a long time without getting wet through, but when they become wet they must be turned inside out and dried very slowly to prevent them from shrinking, and worked soft with a stone skin-dressing tool or the teeth. The natives prefer to dry them in the sun. When the black epidermis wears off this leather is no longer waterproof, so that the women are always on the watch for white spots, which are mended with water-tight patches as soon as possible.
Fig. 82.—Sketch of “ice-creepers” on boot sole
In the early spring, before it thaws enough to render waterproof boots necessary, the surface of the snow becomes very smooth and slippery. To enable themselves to walk on this surface without falling, the natives make a kind of “creeper” out of strips of sealskin. These are doubled lengthwise, and generally bent into a half-moon or horseshoe shape, with the folded edges on the outside of the curve, sewed on the toe and heel of the sealskin sole, as represented in Fig. 82.
[PARTS OF DRESS.]
[Belts] (tapsĭ).—
The belt which is used to hold up the pantaloons or breeches is simply a stout strip of skin tied round the waist. The girdle, which is always worn outside of the frock, except when the weather is warm or the wearer heated by exercise, is very often a similar strap of deerskin, or perhaps wolfskin. Often, however, and especially for full dress, the men wear a handsome belt woven from feathers, and the women one made of wolverines’ toes. There are in the collection two the former and one of the latter.
