At Point Barrow at the present day the lip is always pierced for two labrets, one at each corner of the mouth, though one or both of them are frequently left out. They told us, however, that in ancient times a single labret only was worn, for which the lip was pierced directly in the middle. Certain old and large-sized labrets in the collection are said to have been thus worn. The incisions for the labrets appear to be made about the age of puberty, though I knew one young man who had been married for some months before he had the operation performed. From the young man’s character, I fancy shyness or timidity, as suggested by Dr. Simpson,[258] had something to do with the delay. Contrary to Dr. Simpson’s experience, I did not see a single man above the age of 18 or 19 who did not wear the labrets. It seems hardly probable that ability to take a seal entitles a boy to wear labrets, as he suggests. We knew a number of boys who were excellent seal hunters and even able to manage a kaiak, but none had their lips pierced under the age of 14 or 15, when they may be supposed to have reached manhood. The incisions are at first only large enough to admit a flat-headed pin of walrus ivory, about the diameter of a crow quill, worn with the head resting against the gum. These are soon replaced by a slightly stouter pair, and these again by stouter ones, until the holes are stretched to a diameter of about one-half inch, when they are ready for the labrets.
We heard of no special ceremonies or festivals connected with the making of these incisions, such as Dall observed at Norton Sound,[259] but in the one case where the operation was performed at the village of Utkiavwĭñ during our stay, we learned that it was done by a man outside of the family of the youth operated upon. We were also informed that the incisions must be made with a little lancet of slate. The employment of an implement of ancient form and obsolete material for this purpose indicates, as Dall says in the passage referred to above, “some greater significance than mere ornamentation.”
The collection contains two specimens of such lancets. No. 89721 [1153] (figured in Rept. Point Barrow Expedition, Ethnology, Pl. V, Fig. 4) is the type. A little blade of soft gray slate is carefully inclosed in a neat case of cottonwood. The blade is lanceolate, 1.3 inches long, 0.6 broad, and 0.1 thick, with a short, broad tang. The faces are somewhat rough, and ground with a broad bevel to very sharp cutting edges. The case is made of two similar pieces of wood, flat on one side and rounded on the other, so that when put together they make a rounded body 3 inches long, slightly flattened, and tapering toward the rounded ends, of which one is somewhat larger than the other. Round each end is a narrow, deep, transverse groove for a string to hold the two parts together. A shallow median groove connects these cross grooves on one piece, which is hollowed out on the flat face into a rough cavity of a shape and size suitable to receive the blade, which is produced into a narrow, deep groove at the point, probably to keep the point of the blade from being dulled by touching the wood. The other piece, which serves as a cover, has merely a rough, shallow, oval depression near the middle. The whole is evidently very old, and the case is browned with age and dirt.
Fig. 91.—Plug for enlarging labret hole.
No. 89579 [1200] is a similar blade of reddish purple slate, mounted in a rough haft of bone. Fig. 91, No. 89715 [1211], is one of a pair of bone models, made for sale, of the ivory plugs used for enlarging the holes for the labrets, corresponding in size to about the second pair used. It is roughly whittled out of a coarse-grained compact bone, and closely resembles the plugs figured by Dall from Norton Sound,[260] but lacks the hole in the tip for the transverse wooden peg, which is not used at Point Barrow. One youth was wearing the final size of plugs when we landed at the station. These were brought to a point like the tip of a walrus tusk, and had exactly the appearance of the tusks of a young walrus when they first protrude beyond the lip. The labrets worn at Point Barrow at the present day are usually of two patterns. One is a large, flat, circular disk about 1½ inches in diameter, with a flat stud on the back something like that of a sleevebutton, and the other a thick cylindrical plug about 1 inch long, and one-half inch in diameter, with the protruded end rounded and the other expanded into an oblong flange, presenting a slightly curved surface to the gum. These plug labrets are the common fashion for everyday wear, and at the present day, as in Dr. Simpson’s time, are almost without exception made of stone, Granite or syenite, porphyry, white marble, and sometimes coal (rarely jade) are used for this purpose.
Fig. 92.—Labret of beads and ivory.