Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/211

cipally of caribou. fastened on with sinew-thread and forming at fringe. Many men, however, wear neither hair band nor anything else in their hair.

The women's usual form of hairdressing is that the hair is parted. in the middle and the two halves are plaited into a braid; the outer parts of these braids are laid into several folds and tied round with a cord; thus at each side of the head there is braid hanging down with a bundle at the end (fig. 138). The hair over the forehead is often plaited into two thin braids to prevent it falling over the eyes.

On festive occasions the young women especially used hair-sticks (tuklin); instead of being plaited, the hair was wound round a pair of long, cylindrical wooden sticks and, outside these, they wound ribbons, originally white and dark strips of caribou skin, later on variegated ribbons of cloth or bead embroidery, as illustrated by Low;^[1] at the ends of the sticks the hair was to stand out like a star, for which reason the sticks ended in a small disc, often of seal skin. A pair of these hair sticks from Repulse Bay (Fig. 155) are 50 cm long, round; at the ends are discs of bearded seal skin, 3–3½ cm. The sticks are wound spirally with a band of white felt about 4 cm wide, with an edging, 0.8 cm wide, of red cloth on one edge; the thickness of the sticks is about 2 cm. These hair sticks are still used by a few women in Repulse Bay and more to the south; at Iglulik and Ponds Inlet they exist no more. but they are known and have been used formerly; they are spoken of by Parry^[2] and Boas,^[3] by Hall^[4] from Nuvuk and Bessels^[5] from Admiralty Inlet.

At Ponds Inlet a number of women do their hair in another manner: it is divided into three, two side pieces separated by a centre parting, and the back hair; the side pieces are plaited into braids, the back hair is gathered into a bun over the nape of the neck; the ends of the two. braids are tied together and laid over the bun, thus forming an arch at each side which hangs down over the ear. This pretty style (fig. 156), like the new dress, is due to influence from the southern Baffinlanders; it is the same hairdressing that is used at Cumberland Gulf. And it is principally (though not exclusively) the same women who wear their hair this way and wear the new dress: the old style is, however still the most general at Ponds Inlet. Sometimes I have seen, at Ponds Inlet too, the side hair plaited in two braids