Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/184

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171

Fig. 123.Cut of sealskin frock. the legs 47 and 64 cm long back and front; the soles are strengthened with two pieces of walrus hide sewn on.

The skin of young seals is sometimes used for the summer dress. On Southampton Island I saw a whole outer frock of this material, with the hair outside, cut square at the bottom. A pair of stockings of this skin, from Ponds Inlet, with the hair inside, are 32 cm long. A pair of socks from the Aivilingmiut, Southampton Island, are only 19 cm high. Young seal skin has the advantage over caribou skin in that it stands the damp better; it is not warm enough for winter use, however. On Southampton Island I saw a pair of socks of ptarmigan skin.

Fig. 121 c (Ponds Inlet) is a sealskin mitten, of water-tight skin, edged at the wrist with a light strip. The cut is the same as that of the caribou-skin mitten, and the back piece is heavily crimped where it is turned over; length 23 cm, width at the wrist 13 cm. A pair of Image missingFig. 124.Sealskin trousers. mittens from the Aivilingmiut are of light sealskin with two black borders on the wrist. A pair from Southampton Island are of hairy, young sealskin; an edging of hairy sealskin at the wrist.

Of the Iglulik men's dress in former days we have a good deal of information from Parry and Lyon. On the whole it seems to be the same dress that is used to this day. The frocks, however, seem to be shorter, cut square at the front but with a long back flap, (which they buttoned up when seal-hunting)[1] reaching almost to the ground. Parry[2] also

  1. ↑ See Parry 1824, fig. p. 163 and p. 495, Lyon 1824, p. 312.
  2. ↑ l. c., p. 387.
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