Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/199

the 45 adult women whom I saw. Some of these women come from southern Baffin Land, the Akudnermiut and Orqumiut, and there is no doubt that this dress originates from there. As a matter of fact it is only a modified form of the old Baffin Land dress and only differs in that the frock, instead of the long, narrow back flap and shorter front flap, is cut square at the bottom; I also saw it in fairly widespread use at Cumberland Gulf, although the old dress with the long flaps still predominated. Presumably it has appeared here as a modification, under European influence, of their own old dress. Old Ututsiaq at Ponds Inlet told me that in former days all the Ponds Inlet Eskimo women had the same dress as those of the Aiviliks; but in the time of the whalers a number of Orqumiut came there, and their women had "clothing like men". This dress, made up of vari-coloured pieces of skin or copied in duffel. forms a pretty, becoming and practical woman's dress which now seems to be advancing in northern Baffin Land at the expense of the old one. Not only do the women of southern Baffin Land wear it, but also many Iglulik women; several women whom I saw in the old dress in the first year had, when I met them a year later at Ponds Inlet, adopted the new one. How long it is since this dress made its appearance cannot be said with certainly: the only one of the earlier expedition reports in which it is illustrated is Bernier's.^[1] 1912. Two women with handsome dresses of this type are illustrated in a small publication in 1923.^[2]

The first garment of the infant child is a cap of fox or bird skin, usually a raven skin; it must not be of caribou skin; one of these raven-skin caps is given to the child even at birth. When it has grown so big that it can put its head out of the pouch it receives a cap (nasaq) and a frock (qulitsakuluk) of caribou-calf skin. When the child is old enough to come out of the back pouch and sit on the platform, and later on run about, it is given a combination suit (atâjuit) — frock, trousers and boots all sewn in one piece of caribou skin, with the hair inside; if the child is going out, it is clad in a similar suit with the hair outside, and on top, a loose cap and mittens: the suit is open between the legs, where it is often furnished with long hair, often bear hair. They usually retain the suit until they are three or four years old: the only difference between the dresses of the boys and the girls is that even now the girls' dress has longitudinal stripes on the outside of the trousers. After the suit