CHAPTER VIII
Clothing—Boat Building
In the preceding chapters little but an outline has been given of the activities of the day in an Eskimo encampment. Boat building is one of the occupations in which men and women jointly engage; but before this is described at the length it requires, there is much to be said about the dressing and fashioning of the various skins which form the most important item of Eskimo economy.
The Eskimo woman values none of her possessions more than the ooloo, a short-handled knife shaped like a small half-moon turf cutter, chiefly used for paring off the inner membrane of the stout sealskin for the lighter hangings of the summer tent, but of universal utility. With it she cuts out her garments or dismembers a seal. In addition to this she has steel or ivory needles and a thimble.
The Eskimo have no woven fabrics or European clothes until they come in contact with the whites, and—perhaps unfortunately—acquire the beginnings of a civilisation alien to the natural evolution and necessities of their lives.
Their own native dress consists entirely of deerskins for winter use and sealskins for the summer. [[109]]Both sets are warmly lined with fur. The deerskins employed as clothing are the summer and autumn hides; those flayed in the winter are reserved for the kaksak or sleeping blankets. The men’s and women’s tunics are lined either with fawn skins or the summer skins with the hair on. No underclothing is required, fur always being worn next to the skin. The man’s jacket is looser in shape than the woman’s, and the hood (nessak) fits closely round the face. The woman’s garment is quite different. It has shorter, baggy sleeves, is large and roomy at the back, fitting, however, tightly to the waist; it has a hood (amout) big enough for two heads, a short stomacher-like apron about twelve inches long in front, and a lengthy tail reaching to the heels behind. The Eskimo women carry their babies on their backs in this queer jacket. The child has no clothing on it, but it keeps admirably warm next the fur-clad mother. Its feet rest on her waist line and its head peers from out of the capacious hood over her shoulder.
Both sexes wear short, wide trousers. For footgear they have long deerskin stockings like Lifeguardsmen’s boots, with the hair turned next the skin, reaching well up over the knees under the pants. Over these is worn a sock like a Turkish slipper, made from the skin of the Large Glaucus Gull, the feathers being inside; and over this again goes a short sock of deerskin, with the hair turned outwards and upwards so as to enable the long boot, or kummik, to pull on easily. This boot is tied on below the knee and round the [[110]]ankle. The sole is made of the leather of the large ground seal, with the hair shaved off, and the leg is the skin of deer’s legs stoutly stitched together.
The women take immense pride in the cut, fit, workmanship and ornamentation of their dresses, showing no little taste and discrimination in the management of design and ornament. The various furs are introduced in lines, panels and patterns, with an eye to colour and texture a skilled furrier might envy.
Prior to the advent of Europeans to the Arctics, fringes of deerskin were the most popular form of ornament for clothing; but to-day the Eskimo women are passionately fond of elaborate beadwork. The beads are of European manufacture, but the design in which they are applied is native. The favourite beads are small and brightly coloured. The native sempstress will also sew two or three coins down the front of the inside jacket and down the tail of the dress, or even the bowls of a few spoons. These clink as they walk, and greatly delight their wearers.