Fig. 39.—Eskimo woman’s deerskin coat.
Fig. 40. Backside of same.
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.
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 sexes. 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.
The long boots or leggings are removed when dirty work is to be done. Thus, skins to be scraped 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.